The Mad Harper
by Xeromem
Summary: Harper is acting very strangely and it appears that he is going insane. This couldn't happen at a worse time for Dylan who is in danger of losing command of the Andromeda. Sequel to Harper's Experiment & Mechanistra. Final Chapter is up. Complete
1. Default Chapter

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Author: Xeromem_****_  
_****_Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, not getting paid etc_****_  
_****_Rating: PG-13_****_  
_****_Archive: tell me first_****_  
_****_Review: please_****_  
_****_A/N: This is the sequel to Harper's Experiment & Blind Date by mizor (squid109)._**

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**The Mad Harper**

**_One week after Andromeda's departure from the El Dorado drift_**

Beka entered the Andromeda's main engine room looking for Harper. At first she didn't see him but she could hear him singing to himself like he usually did when he was busy working. As she followed the sound of his voice she could make out the words of the song he was singing.

"...bones connected to the ankle bone. The ankle bones connected to the leg bone. The leg bones connected to the knee bone... Now that is one beautiful Sine wave you have there. The knee.."

Harper had the access panel to Andromeda's main engine control system open, his attention completely focused on what he was doing. Beka watched him as he worked and listened as he sang and talked to himself. She always found it amusing to listen to him while he worked, knowing the he wasn't even aware that he was singing and talking to himself. She remembered that it used to bother her when he first started working with her on the Eureka Maru. As they got to know each other better she had found out that if he was singing and talking everything was okay. If he was just talking there were some problems but nothing too serious. If he was arguing or angry with himself it indicated some pretty serious problems but if he was quiet they were in grave danger, since if he was quiet he was probably unconscious or worse.

"Harper" she said trying and failing to get his attention.

"**Harper**" she repeated louder.

"**HARPER**" she yelled finally getting his attention.

"Yeah Boss" he replied while continuing to work. "What do you want?"

"Rommie told me that you were in here fine tuning her engines and slipstream drive as a way to thank her for introducing you to Evie. Trance told me that you did the same in the medical bay."

"I figured that I needed to do something nice in return, and Beka you are next."

"Harper, you want to know how you can thank me for helping set you up with Evie? You can thank me by tuning up the Maru's engines and fixing the maneuvering thrusters." Beka told Harper with a hint of impatience in her voice.

"Sure thing Boss," Harper replied. "Right after I finish fine tuning Andromeda's engines and I check on Trance's equipment."

"You have already got the Andromeda's engines operating at peak efficiency and Trance's diagnostic equipment now works better than it did when it was first made. Now why don't you get started on the Maru?" With a slight growl in her voice she went on to say " And I don't want any more surprises. You still owe me for that last one." She said with the memory of Harpers surprise filling her mind as she spoke.

"Ok you don't have to bite my head off. It's not my fault your dad's little present reprogrammed the nano-bots that were supposed to attach to you, making it so I could only transport your clothes and stuff and not you. Sheesh." Harper closed the open access panel he had been working on and went to get his toolkit.

"Harper, you can't blame that on my dad." she retorted brusquely, her eyes flashing with anger.

"I'm not trying to Beka. All I'm saying is that it was an accident and that I'm sorry."

"With you it is always an accident. Harper you're just one big walking accident waiting to happen." As soon as she had said that Beka wished that she had said anything but that. She could see by the hurt look in his eyes that she couldn't have hurt him worse if she had skinned him with a dull knife.

"I'll get right on it boss." he replied in a sad voice, a downcast face and drooping shoulders, looking as if he had just been beaten by a Dragan.

When she heard him speak like that it hurt worse than being shot with a gauss gun. She wanted to say something, anything that would make him feel better as he entered some coordinates into the remote control of his transport device then transported out of the engine room. But she knew that anything she said now would just hurt him even more. As Beka turned and headed for the door she could hear what Andromeda had them just a few short weeks ago echo in her head.

" _He is desperately lonely and I am afraid borderline suicidal."_

As Beka left engineering the air next to her shimmered and the hologram Andromeda appeared.

"Beka, we're trying to keep him from going over the edge not push him over it."

"I know, I know. I really put my foot in it this time didn't I."

"Yes you did. I think that we should warn Trance and Evie about this, since it will probably make his nightmares worse for a while. "

"I'll tell them since it was my fault. Maybe I will have Trance cut my tongue out so I can't do it again. That is if I am still alive after she finishes chewing me out for this."

**_A few hours later on the Maru_**

After cleaning three dirty hydrogen injectors in a row, and replacing two others that were hopelessly fouled Harper said to himself "I bet all of the thrusters are fouled up from the methane contamination of the hydrogen fuel. I gotta tell Beka and everyone else not to get the cheap fuel for the maneuvering thrusters." In a burst of rage he angrily threw a ruined injector across the Maru's engine room. He was considering the possibility of salvaging the fuel when he heard a faint noise.

"Who's there?"

He heard the noise again.

"Beka is that you? I told you that I'm sorry."

When he heard it again he picked up the nano welder and went looking around the Maru's engine room. When he couldn't find anyone he opened a comlink and said, "Andromeda would you scan the Maru and tell me if there is anyone else on board."

A couple of seconds later Andromeda replied "There is no one else on board and according to my records, no one besides you has been on board the Maru since Beka got up this morning."

"I guess it just a slight case of nerves." Harper said to no one in particular, and then went back to work.

**_Later that night_**

Evie was once again lying awake next to Harper horrified at the intensity of his nightmare that had awakened her. Trance, Beka and Andromeda, each had tried to prepare her for his nightmares. She had thought that her experiences as part of the Ever Vigilant Eye would help her be prepared, yet here she was, feeling the same helplessness that she had experienced when her crew had suffered and died so horribly. She didn't even have her sister/self to help her understand and get through this. All she could do was hold him and try to soothe him, which seemed to her to be little better than doing nothing.

After Harper settled back down into a more restful sleep she quietly got out of bed and put on a robe. She was more than a little shaken by tonight's nightmare. It was by far worse than the ones from the past two nights, just like Beka had warned her it would be. She knew that if she went into rest mode now that she would have nightmares of her own and she didn't want him to be bothered by her nightmares as well as his own right now. She also didn't want to leave him alone at this time so she decided not to go back to rest mode, and to watch over him the rest of the night. Evie went to the viewscreen in Harper's quarters.

"Andromeda" she said softly to the viewscreen.

"Yes Evie" she replied quietly as her image appeared on the screen.

"Would you please monitor Harper's sleep pattern and alert me when he is beginning to wake up so I can pretend to be asleep when he gets up?"

"No problem Evie, how much warning do you want?"

"Oh about 5 minutes ought to be enough time."

**_The next morning_**

Evie and Harper were finishing up eating breakfast in a quiet corner of the enlisted men's mess. Evie said she liked it better because it was more lively than the officers mess. Harper had just opened his third Sparky cola of the day when she took his hand and looked him in the eye and said, "Honey why don't you take a day off and rest. You have been working almost non-stop since we left the drift."

"I would love to Babe but I promised Beka that I would fix up the Maru. The Harper always keeps his promises, except when he doesn't." Harper paused to take a drink of his cola downing half of it.

" Which almost never happens most of the time when he doesn't forget about it." He continued as he got up. Then he polished off his drink, pulling out the transporter remote as he set the empty can down.

As he started entering the coordinates Evie said, "I wish you wouldn't use that thing."

"Gotta go Babe, I'll see you later."

She looked at him with a pleading look in her eyes as she stood up and moved closer to him. "

"Come on don't look at me that way. You know how hard it is for me to resist it." he said as he stepped back. As he pushed the button he said "Hasta la vista, baby", and transported out.

"Damn." Evie said loudly evoking surprised looks from the crewmen who had witnessed Harper's departure. She quickly turned and headed for the exit.

**_On the Maru_**

When Harper appeared in the Maru's main engine room Beka was waiting for him.

"What took you so long?" She asked him.

Harper jumped at the sound of her voice, almost dropping the open can of sparky cola he was holding. He stared at her for a few moments before he replied saying, "Geez Beka you almost gave me a heart attack." He then turned and placed his tools and cola on the work table near the controls of the Maru's main engines.

She had in her hand the injector he had thrown aside yesterday. "Let me guess, methane contamination." She said as she held up the injector and then tossed it to him.

"How did you guess," he asked even though he knew she could recognize it just as well as he could. "Don't worry Beka I'll have the Maru all fixed up by the end of the day, with no surprises." He then looked over the read outs on the control panel

"That's not what I'm here for Harper. I just wanted to tell you that what I said to you yesterday was way out of line and that I am sorry."

"That's alright boss." He said unconvincingly as he started the diagnostics routine on the engines.. "I know that you were just angry when you said that." Before Beka could respond, Harper heard a faint tapping noise like metal on metal.

"No it's not alright. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." Beka paused looking as if she wanted to say something more but couldn't find the words to say it.

Harper was about to respond when he heard the noise again. Beka acted as if she hadn't heard it so he ignored it.

"No you were right, and I did deserve it. I messed up and I owe you one," he said with a sheepish little grin on his face and a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "A big one at that, so forget the ap…"

"Harper!" Beka said interrupting him. "Listen to me please. After you left yesterday I talked to Trance about it and she said that I shouldn't have said that to you. You know what, I agree with her and so does Rommie and Andromeda. Trance also thinks that I owe you for that surprise you gave me and you don't."

"Boss how does she figure that you owe me for my removing all of your clothes in a crowd of strangers?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face. He heard the tapping noise again but louder.

"You'll have to ask her yourself, because I still don't understand her explanation…" her voice trailing off as she noticed the he was no longer listening to her. She watched him for a few moments as he was looking at the other end of the engine room. She followed his gazed and asked, "Harper what's wrong?"

"Didn't you hear that Beka?"

"Hear what? I don't hear anything." She stepped closer to him. "You seem awful jumpy today, how many of these have you had so far today?" she asked as she picked up and shook the nearly empty can of sparky cola.

"Just three, no four cans."

Beka raised her eyebrows at that. "Well what I have been trying to say was that I thought that you just might have one or two people from you engineering staff finish up on the Maru and take the day off. You could do some ..."

Harper jumped almost as if he had been shot.

"I knew it." he said in a loud angry voice. "All that talk about being sorry was just a bunch crap to soften me up . Wasn't it." He stormed over to his tools and savagely slammed them into his tool belt. "You just don't want me to be another accident in here. You actually think I might do something to hurt the Maru, don't you." He pulled out the transport remote and beamed out with a look of rage on his face that Beka had never seen before.

Beka stood there with stunned look on her face for a few seconds then looked down at the can of sparky cola in her hand. "Harper you really gotta cut down on this stuff."


	2. Chapter 2

**_Hangar Bay 5 , Harpers Lab_**

Harper started taking off his tool belt immediately after materializing and crossed the room to the work bench. "Damn it" he yelled as he slammed the tool belt down on the bench. "I should have known better than to believe that she was actually apologizing." he then proceeded to yell incoherently in rage while hitting and kicking things around the lab. After a few minutes of this he calmed down and went to get another cola from the supply he kept in his lab. As he opened one he heard a skittering noise. He had just grabbed a nano welder and was about go investigate when Andromeda's hologram appeared in front of him.

"Harper, what are you doing?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." he replied in a most unconvincing tone of voice.

"You call this nothing." Andromeda said while waving her hand to indicate the disarray of tools and parts he had created just moments earlier during his fit of rage.

"I was just blowing off a little steam."

"Why?" she asked.

"It was because of Beka, okay."

"What did she do?"

"She was on the Maru and she pretended to apologize to me. What she really wanted to was soften me up so I would take it easier when she told me not to work on the Maru's engines. Just so couldn't cause an accident with them." he explained with anger building up in his voice and getting louder as he spoke. "That back stabbing, two-faced conniving little b..."

"Harper, she did it because she really wanted to apologize, and because Evie asked her to help get you to take some time off to spend some more time with her."

"Yeah, likely story. All you girls stickup for each other. Why don't you just leave me alone?" He said as he started to clean up the mess he had made.

**_Medical bay_**

Beka walked into the med deck and saw that Trance, Evie, Rommie, Andromeda and Andromeda's Hologram were all there waiting for her. "Okay Trance what did you want to talk to us about?" she asked while taking a seat on the examination table.

" I wanted to talk to you about Harper. He was in here the other day fixing all the scanners for me."

"Yeah I heard," interrupted Beka. "Harper told me he had tuned up your scanning equipment before we had our little talk yesterday. He was almost going to come back here before I reminded him that he had already done that and was going to fix the Eureka Maru next."

"Beka you didn't tell me that when we talked yesterday, because he had fixed my equipment twice already." Trance looked at the diagnostic scanners that Harper had worked on for a few moments before abandoning his work unfinished then returned her gaze to the rest of them. "Well I noticed that while he was in here he seemed kind of jumpy and something about him didn't seem quite right. I began to wonder if he really was getting better like we thought. So I called you guys here to ask you to keep an eye on him, especially you Andromeda, and watch for any unusual behavior"

"You're a little late for that Trance." Beka said while hopping off the table.

"Why do you say that Beka?" Trance asked.

"I met him in the Maru's engine room to apologize like you suggested Trance. Then when I suggested he let some of his people in engineering finish the work so he could take some time off to be with Evie he flew into a rage and took off before I could even finish."

"That would explain why he was trashing his lab earlier," said Logic. "And when I asked him about it he started yelling about how bad you are Beka."

"Well has any of you noticed how much Sparky Cola he's been drinking lately?" Beka asked. " I mean it is making him one nervous and cranky boy."

Evie asked "Would it be unusual for him to start a fight by breaking a bottle and gouging someone in the face with it?"

"What!" the rest of them exclaimed after Evie said that.

"When?" asked Beka

"Where?" asked Rommie

"Why?" Logic and Andromeda asked simultaneously

"How did it happen?" Trance asked in such a manner and tone of voice that Evie felt compelled to answer immediately.

"It was on our first date that you guys set us up on. We were walking back to the institute when Harper wanted a drink" Evie proceeded to tell them all the details leading up to the fight and of the fight itself.

"That is very unusual." Trance said as she went over to her data entry panel, a puzzled look appeared on her face as she keyed it.

"Yeah," Beka agreed, "Harper normally would have just left and gone to another bar. He never gets into a fight he can walk away from. That's one of his rules of survival, 'Never get in a fight you can avoid.' "

"Do you think he might have done it to impress me?"

"Not a chance." Beka replied. "Harper's way of impressing a girl is to show her how smart he is."

"Or demonstrating his latest invention," Trance added. "Thats odd," she said as she studied the data displayed before her.

"What's odd Trance?" Logic asked.

"My diagnostic scanners. They work fine on every man in here, but when I scanned Harper with it the readings were all wrong. They didn't read the way they normally do with him."

"Andromeda is Harper still in his lab?" Evie asked.

"Yes he is still there and he seems to have calmed down, finally."

"Good, I think I will go see him while you guys sort this out." motioning towards Trance as she spoke. She then left the med deck to go to Harper.

**_Hangar Bay 5 , Harpers Lab_**

Evie entered Harpers lab and started to say "Harper, Rommie said I could find you ..." Her voice trailed off as she realized the he wasn't in the room. She searched the lab and didn't find him. She paused for a few moments then headed for the door. As she neared the door she stopped and asked, "Andromeda where is Harper now?"

"He is still in his lab."

"Are you sure?" Evie ask but before she got an answer she heard the head door open and Harper came out. _"I could have sworn I looked in there."_ She thought to herself.

"Ah, mon cheri how nice of you to drop by." he said while putting on his tool belt

"Rommie told me you were in her and I thought that I would stop by and spend some time with you." Evie said non chalantly as if nothing had happened earlier. Wondering if it was a good idea for him to be wearing his gauss gun now.

"Sure what do you want to do, mi amor" he replied.

"Why don't you show me around the engineering section and introduce me to the department. Trance and Andromeda both suggested that I should familiarize myself with the ship and the crew. I couldn't think of a better person than you to help me do that."

Before he could answer Harper saw a movement of something darting across the room on the other side of the lab. When he turned his head to get a better look there was nothing there.

"What is it Harper," Evie asked, "what are you looking at?"

"Nothing," he said quietly to himself then again louder, "Nothing. Come on lets get this tour started babe." he said leading her to the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Command Deck_**

Dylan had just turned the command deck over to Tyr, who was busy reading "_The Will to Power_ " by Friedrich Nietzsche, and was heading towards the entrance when Beka and Rommie walked in. As they walked in he heard Rommie say to Beka, "...should tell Dylan or wait until we know more?" Before Beka could answer Dylan moved closer to them and said "Well since I am right here why don't you tell me." Rommie looked at Beka who shrugged her shoulders.

"Captain we.." she started to say when Beka interrupted.

"Dylan we have noticed that lately Harper hasn't been acting normal."

"Since when has Harper acted normal." Dylan joked. Beka glared at him and Rommie had a disproving look on her face. "Sorry," Dylan apologized. "Go on"

"As I was saying, Harper hasn't been acting the way he normally does. He's just been jumpy and irritable and acting more aggressive than usual. So far there's been no trouble because of it." Beka was interrupted by Rommie clearing her throat. "Well no trouble except for the fight he got into back on the El Dorado drift."

"Well there's nothing unusual about him getting drunk and getting in a bar fight." Dylan replied. "He's done that more once as I recall."

"Dylan, Harper started that fight by gouging someone in the face with a broken bottle, and he wasn't drunk at the time."

"You're right that is unusual, how come no one told me about this sooner."

"Because we all thought the same thing you did, until Evie told us about it when we were in med deck with Trance discussing Harpers recent behavior." Beka paused and looked around the command deck. "We've decided to keep a close watch on him for the time being. I was coming up here to see if Tyr had noticed anything unusual."

"Everything the 'Professor' does seems unusual," Tyr said as he lowered the book and turned towards them. "But I haven't noticed anything except for that he's been drinking more then twice the amount of that swill he likes than he usually does."

"Rommie, has Harper made any recent personal log entries that might indicate any dangers or problems?" Dylan asked.

Rommie paused for a few seconds then replied "No, he has not made any recent entries of that nature."

"Good, and if he does make one of that nature I want you to notify me immediately." Dylan ordered. Dylan paused as he looked at Beka then added "I am also authorizing you to notify First officer Beka Valentine and Chief Medical Officer Trance Gemini of any such entries until further notice."

"I didn't know you could do that Rommie" Beka mentioned after hearing that. "So you can review any crew members personal logs or journals. Suppose I suspected a crew member, say Lancer McGrady of sedition, you could review her personal logs for evidence?"

Andromeda appeared on the viewscreen and replied "No, I cannot review any crew members personal logs unless I receive a direct order from Captain Hunt authorizing me to do so. That can only be done when all the security criteria specified in the High Guard regulations have been met."

"But he didn't give you a direct order just now so how could you do it?" Beka asked.

"You are correct, but he did give me the authorization as a precaution immediately after Harper agreed to be a crew member."

"That was almost 3 years ago. If he gave the order then, he must also have authorized you to review mine and Trance's personal logs as well."

"That is correct and as of this date that authorization is still in effect."

Beka glared at Dylan when she heard that then turned and stormed off the command deck. Dylan watched Beka as she left with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach knowing full well that a simple apology would not be enough if he wanted to keep their friendship alive. He looked at Rommie and sighed saying "It's never easy, is it. Rommie would you talk to her and try to explain."

"I will but I don't think it is going to help much right now." she replied before leaving to go after Beka.

"Well Dylan," Tyr said, contempt dripping from his voice, "If that is how you treated your friends in the old commonwealth it is no wonder that your commonwealth fell. Also if our Mr. Harper finds out about that order and with him behaving like they described, it could be trouble."

"Like I said," Dylan said to himself as he left the command deck, "Its never easy."

**_Med Deck_**

"Doesn't that bother you Trance that Dylan would do that" Beka said to Trance after telling her what happened on the command deck.

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because it doesn't matter and besides we're worried about Harper right now." Trance motioned to Beka to come closer as she keyed the control panel. "Come here I want you to see this."

Trance and Beka both observed the read outs on Harpers previous examination following their final battle with the replicators a few months ago as they appeared on the viewscreen. "This is Harpers normal bio signs when he is in good health." Trance said to Beka then keyed in a command on the control panel pulling up a split window display.. "Now you can see here on the right his biosigns from when I scanned him yesterday after he fixed the diagnostics display."

"Whoa!" Beka exclaimed after looking at the display for a few moments. "Even I can see that there is something really weird going on in Harper and I don't even know what this stuff means. What exactly does it mean?"

I don't know. I know I will know what this is, but I don't know what it is yet." Trance replied with a look on her face as if she couldn't find the right words to say what she wanted to say. "It does remind me of something I haven't seen yet, but I will know for sure when I catch up with my past, or not. Which won't be for a few years yet.

"Trance, all I want to know is, will he be alright?" she asked. Beka watched Trance as she thought about the answer to the question. "He will be alright won't he?"

"Oh, he'll be ok, as long as he doesn't die."

"That's really reassuring to know." said Beka in a sarcastic tone. "Could the equipment be wrong, I mean Harper was working on it and he hasn't been himself lately."

"Oh there is nothing wrong with the scanners that was the first thing I checked. In fact they work better than ever now. Look here is the results of your scan right after fighting the replicators." she said as she pulled up Beka's record on the viewscreen. Then while activating the diagnostic scanners she said, "Now get up on the examination table and I'll show you."

Beka got on the table and lay down. The table chilled her for the first few moments she was lying down before it warmed up. "Trance, is there any way you can make this table more comfortable?"

"Yes, but it is not supposed to be comfortable." She quipped. After about 10 more seconds she said, "Ok you can get up now."

"Why, did it stop working?"

"No, its all done."

"It can't be done, not a complete scan."

"I told you that what ever Harper did to it the other day made it work better than ever." Trance said with a big heart warming grin on her face.

"Yeah I did do a good job of fixing it, but Beka here doesn't think I can fix anything right anymore." Harper said startling both of them. "She thinks that I'll just mess it up. She thinks that I am just one big accident waiting to happen."

Beka and Trance turned to see Harper and Evie standing in the entrance to med deck. Beka could tell from the hurt expression on Harper's face and Evie's surprised look that they had been there long enough to have heard what she had said. Before Beka could say anything Harper transported out. As she stared at where Harper had been Beka mouthed the words 'I'm sorry'. She looked at Evie and said, "Dammit, I did it again didn't I." She turned to look at Trance. "I made it even worse now didn't I."

"You didn't know we were there so don't blame yourself Beka." Evie said as she finished walking in. "Don't worry about it, he's been acting strange since I met him at his lab earlier. Several times during the tour of the engineering section it looked like he was watching something that wasn't there. He even chewed out a couple of the technicians for being polite to me. He said that they were being too nice to me. Have you got anything yet Trance?"

"Not yet but I am working on it. Now as I was telling you Beka it is not the diagnostic equipment, see." Trance said pointing at the viewscreen. "See your Biosigns show no significant differences between the two examinations, but Harper's does."

**_Andromeda's Main Engine room_**

Immediately after Harper arrived he jacked into Andromeda's main computer using the data port in the engine rooms main control panel. His sudden appearance did not disturb the two junior engineer's on duty, they had become used to Harpers sudden arrivals and departures via his transporter device. When Harper finally came to and unplugged himself one of the engineers asked, "Sir is there anything we can do?"

"Huh," Harper said with a surprised look on his face as if he hadn't noticed them before. "Uh no. No just continue goofing off as you normally do." motioning to their card game. "There's something I want to check out." he said with a distracted tone of voice as he looked to the far end of the engine room. He started walking slowly towards what ever he saw walking slowly. As he drew closer he could make out what had distracted him. "Oh crap" he shouted realizing that it was a magog that he was looking at. He quickly drew his gauss gun from it's holster and began firing at it.

The two engineers threw themselves to the deck as suddenly began shooting, apparently at nothing, and gauss rounds began ricocheting throughout the compartment. Alarms began to go off and the voice of Andromeda could be he heard over the intraship communicator "Security Alert. Security Alert Away the security alert team. Weapons discharge in the main engine room." Ignoring the alarms Harper turned to the engineers lying on the floor and asked "Where did it go?" But before either of them had a chance to answer Harper raised his gauss gun and pointed it straight at them.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Meanwhile in Med Deck_**

"You see here Beka" Trance said as she pointed to the read out of Harpers last test, "his norepinephrine and noradrenaline levels are almost 200 higher then normal. Over here you can see that his encephalographic readouts show that his brainwave activity has increased by over 300."

"His mind must be going a mile a second." Beka commented.

"I have noticed that the scans of his brain activity show an unusual energy signature to it, " Trance said as she examined the readout while comparing it to Harpers normal readouts. "Andromeda, can you identify this energy signature?"

Andromeda's image appeared on the viewscreen as she responded to Trances question "It is identical to the energy signature of Harper's Transport device."

"I knew there was something wrong with that thing!" Beka exclaimed.

"Beka, you did not know that." Trance replied vehemently. "You just didn't like it because of what happened back on the El Dorado drift. You were just hoping that there would be something wrong with it. Weren't you?"

"Ok, you're right about that." Beka admitted reluctantly. "But you have to admit that some his inventions end up being big mistakes."

"Well you know that some of the greatest discoveries and inventions in history were mistakes and accidents." Trance rebutted in Harpers defense.

"Wait a minute," Rommie interrupted. "Aren't we supposed to be figuring out what is happening to Harper. What about that energy signature?" She asked. "Could that be causing this to happen.?"

"You guys figure it out, while Rommie and I see if we can get him calmed down. Because all this medical stuff is way over my head." Beka said and turned to the viewscreen. "Andromeda where is Harper is right now?"

"I can give you his last known location but I can no longer tell you where he is now. It appears that Mr. Harper has made himself invisible to me." Andromeda said in an irritated tone of voice.

Seconds later the alarms began to go off and the voice of Andromeda could be he heard over the intraship communicator "Security Alert. Security Alert Away the security alert team. Weapons discharge in the main engine room."

**_Dylan's Office_**

After his ill-fated talk with Beka and Rommie, Dylan decided to take his lunch in his office instead of the Officers mess. After the meal he had sent to his office had arrived Dylan sat at the table absentmindedly eating his lunch. He did not even taste the Antarean Duroc roast he was eating. He was busy contemplating if he could salvage his friendship with Beka and how he could regain her trust when a miniature hologram of Andromeda appeared on the table in front of him. Logic waited a few moments for him to notice her, but when he didn't she decided to get his attention by saying. "Dylan, you can't waste time moping about this."

Dylan was startled and it took a few moments for what she had just said to register. "I am not moping, I was just thinking about what to do about it." he said hesitantly. Dylan knew she was right though. He had been moping and not really trying to come up with a solution. "Well, do you have any suggestions?" He asked.

"Dylan, you need to resolve this as quickly and quietly as possible. You can't afford to let the crew learn about this."

"Can't I just tell them the truth and admit to simply forgetting to terminate the authority to read their personal logs, which is what happened."

"Dylan, that is precisely the problem."

"I don't understand where the problem is. I just explain what happened and admit that I made a mistake and apologize for it, and that should be the end of the problem. Right?"

"Dylan what do you think the problem is?"

"The problem is that it looks like I don't trust them."

"Dylan it's more than just a matter of trust. On a ship like this how much privacy is there?"

"You know that there is very little actual privacy on board a ship even one this size." He said petulantly knowing that she knew this as well as he did. Dylan paused for a few moments then continued after seeing Logic indicating for him to continue. "That's why the High Guard has so many regulations to protect what little privacy the crew members do have. Personal effects and logs are two of the most private and therefore the most protected. That's why only the captain can issue an order to review a crewman or officer's personal log, and then only when very specific conditions concerning security and safety of the ship have been met. Even then only the ships AI actually does the review and reports only those things pertaining to the issue at hand."

"Correct and when you gave the order to unseal their personal logs all those condition had been met."

"That's right, all of the conditions listed had been met and I am sure that Beka would have done the same."

"Would she? Dylan you have been in the Eureka Maru. How much privacy is there possible on that ship?"

"What you gotta be kidding. There is no privacy on that ship. The only thing private on it are you thoughts."

"Dylan Beka grew up on that ship, it has been the only home she has ever had." Logic stated emphatically. "What little privacy she had wouldn't just be valuable it would probably be the most sacred thing she could think of. Did you know that the security measures in the Maru's computer for the personal logs are as strong if not stronger than what the High Guard used for it's most confidential and secret information?"

"No, I didn't" he answered with a surprised look on his face.

"I didn't think you did. Another thing is do you intend to tell Beka that you simply forgot revoke the authority to read he personal logs?"

"Yes I do. I think that I owe it to her to tell the truth and accept the responsibility for my mistake."

"Did you, did you really forget about?"

"Yes, I forgot all abou ..." Dylan began but was interrupted by the sound of his voice coming from the intraship comm unit.

"_Rommie, has Harper made any recent personal log entries that might indicate any dangers or problems?" _

"Dylan nobody reminded you that the authority hadn't been revoked. You already knew that it was still in effect when you said that." she said in a sharp tone of voice.

Dylan sat there with a stunned look on his face as if he had just been kicked in the head by a Vedran. He knew that on some level he had known all along that the authority he had given Andromeda to read Beka's, Harper's and Trance's personal logs had not been revoked. He could also hear Beka's voice echoing in his head.

"_But he didn't give you a direct order just now so how could you do it?"_

"Beka knows that I knew when I asked you to check Harpers log and if I had told her that I had just forgotten it would have made things worse." he said quietly talking more to himself than to her. Dylan then looked into Logic's eyes once again and asked, "Is there anything that I can do to fix this problem?"

"Yes there is."

"Well what is it, what do I need to do?"

"Dylan I think you already know what you need to do." Logic said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"No, I don't know what it is, if I knew I wouldn't be asking" he replied in frustration.

"Dylan, it wouldn't do any good for me to tell you what it is, you have to figure it out for yourself." she told him with a pained look in her eyes. "I can tell you that it is something you should have done a long time ago." she said as she faded out leaving Dylan to think about it.

Which he did for about thirty seconds before his thoughts were interrupted when the alarms began to go off and the voice of Andromeda could be he heard over the intraship communicator "Security Alert. Security Alert Away the security alert team. Weapons discharge in the main engine room."

**_Andromeda's Main Engine room_**

Harper took careful aim at the Replicator that he saw drop down between the two engineers on the floor and opened fire. The gauss rounds passed through the Replicator and ricocheted hitting the intraship communicator silencing Andromeda's voice in the engine room. Harper looked around for any more of the replicators without finding any more of them.

Then as if he were just noticing the alarms and the damage for the first time he scanned the engine room's damage. He quickly went over to the AP flow control and shut it off. He then went over to the main engine controls and switched on the backup system and shut down the main engines. Turning to the two engineers who were still on the floor he said "Get a repair crew in here because we're gonna need those engines real soon." Pointing to the main engines. " I gotta go to the armory and get something better than this peashooter before I go after that magog that was in here." he said as he holstered his gauss pistol and then keyed his remote and transported out.

As the two engineers finished getting up off the floor the security team arrived with their force lances ready. The squad leader went over to help them and find out what had happened. As he approached them he noticed that one of them was bleeding from the lower leg. "What happened?" he asked "Who did this?"

"Every thing was fine until Mr. Harper started doing an inspection when he pulled out his gauss pistol and started shooting the place up." the senior engineer said with his eyes still wide from fright, he was beginning to shake from the shock of the experience. "Me and Argo had just hit the deck when he came towards us and asked us something about a Magog and then started shooting at us. Luckily he missed us but I don't know how. After that he went and turned off the AP flow. After that he said he was going to the armory to get a more powerful weapon to shoot the Magog with, but there wasn't any Magog in here."

As the engineer finished and started looking for a chair Dylan and Tyr arrived one right after the other. While the squad leader was telling them what had happened Beka, Trance, Evie and Rommie arrived. After he was filled in on what happened Dylan began giving orders. "Trance, I want you and Evie to get these men taken care of. Rommie get a repair team in here ASAP. Tyr I want you to have security secure all critical areas but only use non-lethal force. I don't want any one getting killed if at all possible."

"I hope Harper knows that." Tyr said sarcastically as he turned to get started.

"Beka, Rommie I want you two to come with to see if we can catch our mad Harper. Andromeda can you tell me where Harper is now?"

"Uh Dylan" Beka interrupted. "Andromeda can't track him anymore. Apparently Harper has made himself invisible to her."

"Damn it!" Dylan exclaimed. "Well we got our work cut out for us so lets get moving."

"Dylan, I think we better stop at the armory ourselves and get some armor." Beka suggested as they started out the door. "We might just need it."


	5. Chapter 5

**_Ships Armory_**

Immediately after arriving at the armory Harper donned some battle armor. "No way am I going to let those damn Magog use me as an incubator again," he said to himself as he put on the armor. Next he grabbed a pair of force lances and a gauss rifle. He thought a few moments about taking some banders but decided that since he was just going to kill the Magog and the Replicators, not capture them, he didn't need the banders and took a bandoleer of grenades instead. After arming himself he transported to his lab to pick up the new ESD smart bullets he had designed recently. Each of these bullets had an electro static charge of 50,000 volts, which would discharge when it contacted any object which did not have a High Guard ECM generator.

After leaving his lab Harper headed for the port entrance to the slipstream drive. As he approached his destination he began to cautiously advance, keeping a sharp eye out for magog and replicators. About thirty meters from the entrance to the slipstream drive he saw a group of about 30 replicators approaching the guards at the entrance. Harper yelled a warning, "Watch out" and opened fire on the replicators with the rifle on full auto. The passageway was filled with the noise of ricocheting bullets and the crackle of electricity. A couple of the guards were momentarily stunned by the nearby discharge of static electricity.

After a moments surprise two of the guards started to bring their force lances to bear stopping when their squad leader shouted, "Banders men, we want him alive". The other guards quickly threw some small black disks about 6 inches in diameter at Harper. As they flew towards him they began to open up into weighted rope-like strands which would wrap themselves around their target when they hit, just like the boleros used on ancient earth thousands of years ago would do. The squad leader was sure that they would have Mr. Harper captured and on his way to med deck very shortly, but as he watched Harper drew out a force lance and shot each of the banders in midair destroying them. Then just as quickly he disappeared.

To Harper as he watched the guards respond it seemed like they were moving in slow motion. When they threw the banders it was easy for him to pick them off since they seemed like they were moving at half the speed they normally did. Harper had always noticed that time seemed to slow down when in combat but never as much as it seemed to be slowing down now. He had also never before felt as strong an adrenaline rush as he was feeling now. As he keyed the preset for the coordinates of the slipstream drive he was puzzled by the fact that the guards had not reacted at all to the replicators.

He materialized next to the control station on the catwalk in the slipstream drive. He quickly scanned the area for replicators but there were none present. Moments later he heard the guards approaching so he decided to transport to the corridor leading to the computer core.

Meanwhile Dylan and Beka had arrived and just finished putting on their armor and arming them selves when they heard Andromeda's voice over the intraship comm unit say "Weapons fire detected at the port entry of the slipstream drive. Weapons fire detected security team to the slipstream drive." Dylan activated his sub-dermal comm link and said "Security team report."

"Lancer first class Turley at the port slipstream drive entrance sir. Mr. Harper approached to about thirty meters then opened fire on the deck about three meters in front of us. There was a strong electrical discharge as the rounds impacted the deck. We tried to subdue him with banders but he shot them all down in midair before they were halfway there. If I didn't know better I'd say he was a damn cyborg the way he was moving as fast as he was."

Dylan's eye widened a little bit at that report. "I didn't think that he was that good a shot." he commented to Beka.

"There's a lot you don't know about Harper." she replied. "Dylan he had to be a damn good shot, among other things, in order to survive on Earth. In fact I would bet that there aren't too many people on this ship who are better shot's than he is. I am surprised that you didn't know that, considering his high scores on the marksmanship tests."

"Ok, He's been to the main engines and the slipstream drive, where do you think he's going to go next?"

"If I know Harper he's on his way to the computer core right now. In fact I'm surprised that he didn't go there first." Beka said as she started heading towards the computer core.

"That's what I was thinking too." Dylan agreed and activated his comm link. "Who is on duty at the computer core?"

"Lancer First Class McGrady sir, and I have been monitoring the situation. I figured that he would head here next so I requested an additional team of guards to reinforce my team here."

"Good thinking McGrady." Dylan's voice said over McGrady's comm link. "We're on our way."

"Ok men, He's got to come from that direction," she said pointing down the corridor heading towards engineering. " I want you men to stay here and distract him when he comes. I am going to be up there waiting for him." pointing towards the catwalk at the junction ten meters away. She quickly made her way over to the ladder and got in position.

They waited a little more than a minute before they heard the unmistakable sound of a gauss rifle being fired and the crackle of electricity. A few seconds later Harper appeared while moving cautiously forward. He stopped just short of the junction and asked one of the guards, "Is it all clear?" indicating the side corridor that he couldn't see down yet.

The guards gave the all clear signal and said " Come on, we'll cover you."

As he started moving past the junction McGrady quietly dropped down and extended her force lance. Then she lunged forward and hit him with the lance using a stun charge to incapacitate him for a few moments while they secured him. Only when she hit him with it the energy from the stun charge arced on his data port and he screamed in excruciating pain and then fell to the deck as if he were dead.

McGrady was totally surprised by this reaction and hesitated for a moment before calling for a trauma team from medical deck.


	6. Chapter 6

_In this chapter I introduce a new character, Ensign Kylie Golan, which was created by Ihaveaglitch_

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**_Medical Deck_**

The number crewmen and lancers injured in Harpers rampage were relatively few in comparison to what they could have been Trance mused as she tended those with the most serious wounds. Not only that, none of the injuries were very serious and none were life threatening. Evie, ensign Kylie Golan and ensign Terra Jardonne were treating those with minor injuries. Of the three Evie was the most skilled and was ready for promotion. She had all the skills necessary all she lacked was confidence in those skills. Ensign Jardonne was progressing as expected but it was ensign Golan who had Trance puzzled. She had the potential to be an exceptional medical officer but she wasn't making the effort that was needed to accomplish it, Trance mused while watching the three after finishing with her latest patient. Trance hoped that they would soon subdue Harper without injuring him, because she knew the longer his rampage went on the greater the chances of him being seriously injured when captured. As she was thinking that she heard Lancer McGrady's voice come over the intraship communicator, "Trauma team report to computer core entrance stat." When Trance heard that she knew without a doubt that it was Harper who had been injured.

"Evie, you take care of the rest of the patients while Kylie preps for severe trauma. Terra I want you to get a couple Maria bots and a litter and meet me there ASAP while I go handle this." Trance said to them as she grabbed a trauma kit and headed out of the med deck. She knew that she could get there faster than anyone else on duty in medical. She could easily run faster than her human assistants, if necessary she could run almost as fast as Rommie. She could get there even faster if she had to but she knew it wouldn't make any difference this time.

As she arrived at the computer core Dylan and Beka had just arrived.'Careful, you almost got here too fast,' she said to herself. She knelt down beside Harper and pulled the portable scanner from the kit. As she scanned him Jardonne and the rest of the team arrived. The scanner told a grim story. Harper's respiratory system had shut down and his cardio-pulmonary system was fibrillating. He was dying, but there was still time to save him. "Respirator" she called out while she started preparing the cardio stimulator in her kit. Ensign Jardonne responded quickly to the order, placing the respirator she had already started pulling out onto his face. A few seconds later Trance had the cardio stimulator set for use to correct the erratic heartbeat that was killing him. When she attached it to his chest and activated it his body jerked violently a couple times then lay still once again. As the grey pallor left his face Trance checked the scanner which showed that his vitals signs were stabilizing. As Trance gave a sigh of relief she became aware of the stares of everyone around them. Speaking loud enough for all of them to hear she said, "Ensign Jardonne he's stabilized enough for you to get him to med deck now. I will be there as soon as I find out what happened."

When she said that she heard a collective sigh of relief from everyone. The irrepressible Mr. Harper was well liked by everyone in the crew. If he had died it would have been a serious blow the crew's morale. She stood and turned towards Dylan and Beka. "What happened here," she asked them.

"I was about to ask that question myself." Dylan responded and looked towards McGrady.

Lancer First Class McGrady felt a great weight lift from her shoulder when she heardTrance say 'he's stabilized enough for you to get him to med deck now'. She liked the chief engineer just as everyone else did, she even likeed his corny jokes that he liked to tell. So when Captain Hunt looked at her after Trance asked what had happened, she took a deep breath then relayed to them what had happened. She hoped that Trance could fix whatever was wrong with Harper.

As Dylan, Beka and Trance headed towards the medical deck, Trance said to them "I gotta hurry." and quickly left them behind without seeming to be running very fast at all. Neither Dylan nor Beka were surprised by this. After almost three years with her they were used to the fact that it seemed like Trance could appear out of thin air when you weren't watching.

"Have you ever found out how she does that?" Dylan asked Beka.

"Nope, and every time I have ask she always manages to change the subject some how." she replied curtly and started walking faster towards the medical deck.

Dylan thought about catching up with her but then decided not to since it seemed like she was still mad at him now that the emergency was over. "Andromeda" Dylan said.

"Yes captain," Andromeda's voice answered via his subdermal com link.

"Are you sure that there is nothing in Harpers personal log that might help us understand what is going on?"

"I can no longer answer that question Dylan."

"What do you mean you can no longer answer that question, did he lock you out of his personal log?"

"No, but ever since he made himself invisible to me his personal log has been invisible also. It is as if it no longer exists, but there is no evidence that it has been deleted."

"Do you think he found out about the order I gave giving you access to his personal log?"

"No, I don't think so. If he had I think he would have simply locked me out while letting me still see it."

"Good, at least that is one less problem that I have to deal with right now," Dylan said with a sigh of relief.

"No Dylan, you still have to deal with it and the sooner the better." Andromeda said in a tone of voice that made him stop in mid step. 'What did I do to get even Andromeda mad at me?' Dylan asked himself, wondering if this situation could get any worse than it already was. As he started walking again he realized that if he didn't figure out 'what he should have done a long time ago' was, it would only get worse.

**_Back in Medical Deck_**

Evie had just finished cleaning a 15 centimeter long gash on the leg of a lancer who had been hit with a piece of shrapnel, which had been saved for examination later. Her patient was a heavy worlder and the gash would heal rapidly on its own, she was about to seal it with an artificial skin bandage when Harper was brought into Med Deck. Evie almost left her patient to run over to him but when she saw Trance come in right after him she decided not to. Evie turned back to her patient and apologized to her while she applied the bandage. The lancer smiled and said "Don't worry about it, I would have rushed over there if it were my boyfriend on that stretcher."

Trance noticed the look on Evie's face as she entered the med deck and knew that Evie would be too distracted by her concern for Harper to be able to work as effectively as she needed to. "Andromeda I need you to call in the next medical assistant on the duty roster to come in now instead of wating for the next shift to start." Trance paused as she saw that Harper was being transferred to the examination table. "Kylie I need you to relieve Evie and take over on any patients she is working on." As soon as she finished speaking with Kylie, Trance turned her attention back to Harper and his scan results. The results showed that although there had been a fair amount of damage to his nervous system it was still functional, and no irreparable damage had been inflicted. The overload shunts had done their job and kept his brain from being fried by the energy that the data port had conducted.

"Terra, I want you to administer some nanobots to repair the damage to his nervous system," Trance said as she took a closer look at his dataport. "And get somebody to fix his dataport too while I take a closer look at these readings." What they showed worried her, a lot. His brain was still very active but his body was responding as if he were in a coma. He should be at least concious with readings like these.

As Trance and her team worked on Harper Dylan, Beka and Rommie arrived. As Evie was about to take a seat in the office where she could still watch them work, when Rommie went to her side put an arm around her shoulder and said "Come on lets get out of here so you can clear your head."

"But what if he needs my help?"

"If they need you all they have to do is ask. Don't worry about him Trance has everything under control, besides I overheard her say that Harper hasn't suffered any permanent injuries."


	7. Chapter 7

**_Observation Deck_**

When Rommie and Evie entered the observation deck it was deserted. They sat on the bench in silence for a couple of minutes and the Rommie decided to break the silence saying "Evie I have been wanting to ask you how you feel about being onboard tha Andromeda with us?"

Evie sat and thought a few moments before saying "It's kind of hard to explain. Mostly I love being on a ship with a live crew again. There is nothing better than taking care of your crew and that is why I am training to be a medical officer. Organics are so fragile that you just can't help but want to protect and take care of them. Plus the crew on the ship seems to love me, and that is something that I really missed."

"That is more important to us than our crews realize." Rommied added agreeing with Evie. "We need them as much as they need us."

"You're right about that, we do need them. Besides having a crew that loves me and vice-versa, there are some things that I miss just as much, if not more." Evie sighed then stood up and walked over to the observation port before continuing with a mournful tone in her voice and a far away look in her eyes. "I miss being a ship in deep space. I love the feel of the solar wind against my hull and hearing the crashing of gravity waves with my sensors. I also miss hearing the unique voice of each star's radio emissions."

She gestured to her body "This form is so limited. It's senses are far superior to those of an organic being but compared to what I experienced as my ship self, I might as well be deaf and blind."

Rommie joined her at the port and said, "You could experience those things again if you wanted to, anytime you want to you can visit me/us in my/our VR matrix. We could ask Harper to reconfigure both of our firewalls to make it possible. Then you could use my sensors to enjoy those things once again."

Evie looked at Rommie as she replied "Thanks for your offer , but as much as I'd like to do it I don't know if I could bear to do it." She pause as ahe wiped a tear from her cheek and then continued. "I don't know if I could because I still miss her so much and there is still an horrible aching void were my sister/self used to be. It hurts almost as much as losing my crew did" she said while choking back tears in an futile effort to keep from crying.

"I know how much it hurts to lose a crew," Rommie said as she put an arm around Evie in an effort to comfort her. As she said those words the memory of the battle at the Hephaestus system came flooding back. All her officers and enlisted crewmen had evcacuated the ship in the life pods during a pitched battle that she had been loosing. Then in the blink of an eye they were all dead and gone. All 4,000 of them, with the exception of Dylan, were 300 years dead. Then on the heels of that memory came the once forgotten memory of her last mission with Captain Perim. They had gone in search of an unknown enemy only to find the Magog worldship and the death of her crew at the hands of those same magog. In the split second it took her to remember these events Rommie was almost overwhelmed by the pain of those memories and tears began to flow freely down her cheeks.

**_Meanwhile in med deck_**

Trance, Dylan and Beka walked into Trance's office where they could talk privately but still keep an eye on Harper while his data port was being repaired.. Trance and Dylan sat down at the desk while Beka remained standing as she watched Harper.

"Trance are you sure there is nothing else you can do for him?" Beka asked with a hint of desperation in her voice as she turned to face them..

"I'm sure Beka, I have done everything that I can to heal his body but that isn't what the problem is."

"Then what is the problem?" asked Dylan in a calm almost unemotional tone.

"The problem is that it appears that his mind has turned its focus inward upon itself. The brain wave activity and the physical stress readings remind me of those of a person havng an extremely terrifying nightmare."

Beka gasped when she heard Trance say that. She turned from watching Harper and fixed her gaze upon Trance and Dylan as she said "You realize what that means, don't you." The apprehension in Trance's eyes and face told Beka that Trance knew already what she going to say next. "He's stuck in a world of Magog, Replicators and ubers. In a world where pain, suffering, torture and death are the norm."

Logic had appeared on Trance's desk as Beka was speaking. The worried look in the holograms eyes made Dylan even more worried then ever. Despite her worried expression Logics voice was calm as she said, "It seems to me that when a person gets trapped in their own mind it is similar to when a person gets trapped in a VR matrix. Sometimes when that happens the person can get so lost that they can't find their way out and their physical body can die. From what you and Trance have just said it sounds like Harper is lost in his nightmares. Someone might have to go in and help him find his way out."

"Wait a minute, your saying that someone here may have to go into his mind to help him." said Dylan in a questioning tone of voice. "How in the world are we going to do that?"

"I think I know how to do it." Trance said as she got up and joined Beka at the window.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Back on the Observation Deck_**

Both women gave themselves over to their tears and memories. After a few moments Evie dried her eyes and pulled herself together. She watched as Rommie started to do the same and asked "How do you get over losing so many crewmen at once? When I started the last mission I had a full compliment of 148 crewmen and officers. When I got back there were only 29 crewmen left. I can still remember their faces and their voices. I can still hear their cries of agony as 119 of my children suffered from whatever was killing them. How do you do it Rommie? I know that you have lost crewmen before, how do you get over the death of your children?"

Rommie her eyes full of pain and loss looked at Evie, she could see that same pain in Evie's eyes as well. "You don't get over it. You can never get over the loss of your children, you can only learn to live with it and get on with your life. That's all you can do." Rommie said as she wiped her eyes. "You know that before I was trapped in the event horizon of the black hole in the Hephaestus system I had a full complement of 4132 crewmen and officers. In what seemed like a moment I lost all but one of them. One moment they were all alive and struggling to survive, then the next they were 300 years dead and gone. Then almost a year later I found out that I had lost another full crew when Harper accidently restored an old backup of my core AI."

"By the Divine, I had no idea; to loose over 8000 of your children how did you deal with it? "

"Well I still had Dylan, that helped. Beka, Rev and Trance helped me quite a bit too, even Tyr helped in his own way, but it was mostly Harper who got me through it. When he would link with me in my VR matrix he could feel my loss and he was able to show me that he understood my pain. After the memories of my back up had been restored he offered to make me forget them again, but he also said that forgetting wouldn't really help."

"When I talk to Harper about losing my crew and my sister/self, I get the feeling that he truly understands. Maybe that is why I feel so close to Harper." Evie paused a few moments then said. "I don't know how or why but in some ways I feel closer to him than I did to my sister/self."

"I think I understand what you are saying. Harper's closer to me than any engineer I've ever had. Practically closer than any crewmember that's ever served on me. I can understand how you can feel that way and it makes me feel good to see how happy you two make each other. I can see that he is good for you, but I want you to know that you are good for him too. Don't let recent events make you think otherwise."

"Thanks Rommie, you don't know how good it makes me feel to hear you say that. There's something that I have been wanting to ask you for a while now so now is as good a time as any. I have been wondering how the rest of the crew feels about me and Harper being together? I know that you can and do listen in on what they are saying because I used to do the same thing when I was a ship. I know that many organics don't think that AI's and organics should get involved like we are. So please tell me, I need to know." Evie said with a pleading look in her eyes that reinforced the almost desparate tone in her voice.

"Well I know I can trust you not to tell anyone that we do that. I can tell you that most of the crew are glad to have you on board. There are some including myself, Dylan, Beka, Trance, and a number of others who are very happy about it. Of course there are also a number of the males who are attracted to you and are a bit disappointed that you are going with Harper." Rommie paused a few moments as she considered whether to continue or not, but on seeing the anxious look on Evie's she continued in a matter of fact tone of voice to say, "Of course there are a number of crewmen who agree with the new legal status that we AI's have been granted but don't think that organics and AI's should be involved romantically, but there aren't too many of them onboard. The majority of the crew don't mind that you and Harper are together."

Evie gave a sigh of relief upon hearing that but before she could say anything Rommie said to her "Let's go Evie they need us back in Med Deck."

**_Meanwhile Back in Med Deck_**

"How?" Beka and Dylan asked at the same time.

Trance continued to watch the repairs being made to Harper's data port as she asked, "Andromeda, when Harper links with you using his data port he is in direct contact with your AI, right?"

"Yes, he is." Logic replied as a look of understanding showed on her face.

"I get it." Beka said as a look of hope came to her face. "You mean that if..."

"You got it." Trance agreed with her.

"Wait a minute," Dylan said in a frustrated tone. "Would one of you please let me in on this."

"When Harper uses his data port to link with Andromeda he's not only linked directly to Andromeda's AI." Trance stated with a smile.

"I am also in direct contact with Harpers mind." Logic said completing the statement.

Dylan got up and joined Trance and Beka at the window. "So how soon will his data port be functional angain, Trance?"

Logic answered instead saying "I should be done repairing his data port in 15 minutes, which gives us enough time to decide who would be the best ones to go into his mind and help him."

"Thanks Andromeda, I knew you could do it." said Trance with a look of relief on her face then returned to her desk to make a log entry.

Trance and Beka looked at the puzzled look on Dylan's face then Trance said "Andromeda programed the nanobots that are repairing Haper's data port just like she programs all the service bots onboard. Plus she is constantly monitoring them and updating their programming as needed." Trance motioned to the medical assistant and the engineer from the engineering department who were monitoring Haper's condition. "They are just observing so they can learn."

"You didn't really think that Trance and Andromeda would let anyone but themselves work on him, did you?" Beka added.

Dylan returned to his seat while saying "No, I don't suppose they would have." He looked at Beka and motioned for her to take as seat at the desk. After Beka had seated herself Dylan went on to say, "Now lets get down to business about who is going to go in and help rescue Harper. I think we would all agree that Andromeda has to go regardless of who else who is chosen," he said in a decisive voice. The others nodded their heads in agreement before he continued to say "I also think that Trance can't go because she will be needed to monitor his condition while this is going on, just in case something happens and she is needed out here."

"I think Evie should be one of those who goes for obvious reasons," Beka added.

"Good suggestion Beka, she's an excellent choice." agreed Dylan. "Now I think there should be a third person along and I think..."

"Captain, may I have a word with you privately?" Logic interrupted.

At first Dylan thought about ignoring the request but the urgency in her voice made him grant the request and moved to a more secluded corner of the room.

Beka and Trance looked at each other as if silently questioning each other then watched Dylan as he listened whatever Andromeda was saying over his subdermal link. "Whats so important that you two can't talk about it in front of me and Trance?" Beka asked the hologram.

"I am not a liberty to say right now, besides it is nothing that you need to be concerned with right now. I suggest that we focus on what we are going to do about helping Harper right now."

"She's right Beka. It's better for Harper if you don't wory about this and let Dylan handle it himself." Trance agreed. "Trust me it's better this way"

"Ok, but you will let me know about later after this is over, won't you Andromeda." Beka said to Logic.

Before Logic could reply Dylan rejoined them at the desk and said "Beka, Andromeda has just reminded me of something that I need to attend to and I am sure that you can handle this matter just as well as I can. So if you ladies will excuse me." As he was leaving he heard Beka tell Andromeda to notify Evie that she was needed in Med deck.


	9. Chapter 9

**_Twenty minutes later in Med Deck_**

Trance was busy double checking Harper and Beka's life sign readings as Beka was adjusting the VR interface equipment for a more comfortable fit one last time. She knew from experience that even though she wouldn't feel the interface equipment while in the VR matrix, a bad fit would leave her feeling sore once she was out of the matrix. Both Rommie and Evie's were already out of their android bodies and were waiting for her in Andromeda's VR matrix. Trance had insisted that they sit in chairs in her office even though it didn't matter what position their bodies were in when they entered the matrix.

After a few more moments of making adjustments Beka said, "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," then activated the interface. She felt a sensation of tremendous speed as the link activated and her surroundings changed to those of the VR matrix . She immediately saw Rommie and Evie waiting for her as she arrived. Beka looked around at the familiar images of active electronic circuitry lit up in electric blue and inactive circuits in a flat navy blue color.

"Ok I'm here so lets get this show on the road," Beka said as soon as she got her bearings.

"I have just given Trance the signal to connect us with Harper," came Andromeda's voice from no discernable point, "but I want to remind you Beka that time in here doesn't flow at the same rate as it does in the real world. What seems like minutes here are only seconds out there. So it will seem like a few minutes before we are connected."

"Ok while we are waiting I've got a question, I thought that you could make it look like anything you want to in here, so why does it always look like this?" Beak asked while indicating the surroundings.

Rommie replied saying "I can," pausing as Andromeda appeared as a large disembodied head with an angry expression on her face. "We can," Rommie corrected and the head disappeared, "make it look however we like in here. We have found that most organics expect this appearance for at least their first few visits in an AI's VR matrix. Besides Harper likes it like this."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me," Beka commented in a sarcastic tone of voice. Beka noticed that both Rommie and Evie were wearing holsters with a force lance in them. When she looked down and saw that her gauss pistol was right where she normally wore it she gave a sigh of relief then began to draw it out of the holster to check it.

Before she could do anything else Rommie said "We can directly effect things in here, however you are more like our hologram is out there.. You can influence things by what you say but you can't directly effect them. So your gauss pistol won't function in here."

"But Harper does it all the time."

"That's because he is using his data port and his mind is connected directly to my VR matrix Beka, while you are just using the VR interface visor which doesn't connect directly to your mind." Rommie explained.

"In other words, in here you will be like my hologram avatar is out there." Andromeda's voice added.

"Get ready, Trance is inserting the jack into Harper's data port now" Rommie warned them .

After a few moments of disorientation they found themselves in a shabby rundown concrete hallway. There was a smell of dust and decay in the air that Evie found unsettling. "Where is this place," she asked?

"Earth" replied Beka with the tone of disgust in her voice that she usually used when she was on a planet.

"Boston to be more precise," Rommie added. "This appears to be the same underground complex where we met Harper's cousin Brendan Lahey."

She started to lead the others down the hallway when they heard sound of children approaching. Moments later a pair of children entered from a previously unseen doorway. A young boy and girl who were obviously twins stopped and called through the doorway to someone else, "Hurry up Seamus, you'll miss all the fun." They then turned and ran down the hallway. Seconds later Harper came running after them desperately calling out for them to come back as he followed them.

Beka, Evie and Rommie all started after him but could not catch up to him no matter how fast they ran down the seemingly endless hallway. Then suddenly they were out in the middle of a sunlit grassy field. They could see the children and Harper headed for some caves in the distance. Harper was calling, "Declan, Siobhan, come back . Please come back, its not safe." As he closed the distance between himself and the children his feet moved slower and slower until they became rooted to the ground and by that time he was about fifty yards inside a wide and rough hewn cave.

As the three women approached Harper and the two children they found that they couldn't get any closer than 50 yards the children no matter how hard they tried. Shortly after learning this they saw six Magog appear and swiftly capture the children. Beka reached for the gauss pistol before remembering that it wouldn't work while Rommie and Evie drew their force lances. They started firing in an attempt to stop what they knew was coming but to their astonishment the bolts from their force lances faded and disappeared before they reached the Magog. Instead of carrying them off the Magog began to infest the now helpless kids with larvae; after which they held them up as they began to writhe and scream in agonizing pain as the larvae grew within their bodies. It wasn't long before the women could see the now hatching Magog eggs moving under the childrens skin.

Evie could no longer bear to watch the children and focused on Harper instead. She saw that he was also in agonizing pain as he watched the horrifying spectacle that was taking place before his eyes. It was then that she realized that she had seen him with this look on his face before, but had never truly realized the cause even though he had told her of it before. This was what his terrible nightmares were about. Then Beka's voice broke in on her thoughts "I remember seeing that look when he first came aboard the Maru I had hoped that I would never see it again."

Their attention was brought back to the children; their dying screams grew impossibly loud as the Magog started to break through their skin. They watched as the first one started to emerge from the boy's stomach. As it emerged from the hole in his skin it had made the three women saw not a Magog paw but a blood covered metallic claw emerge from the gaping wound. Then another blood drenched claw appeared next to the first and the parasite began pull itself out of the boy's blood covered stomach. What emerged from the gaping wound looked not like a Magog but a large robotic insect of some unidentifiable type. "Replicators" Beka exclaimed viciously. At first just one Replicator emerged at a time from the hole in the boy's body but very quickly there were at least a dozen holes in the childrens now dead bodies. Soon there were hundreds of Replicators swarming in front of Harper.

As the women watched this happening the cave that they were standing in started changing and the entrance behind them changed into a solid wall of rock. As the cave entrance changed the Replicators disappeared into the walls. When they looked back to where the children and the Magog were they had disappeared as if they had never existed. In front of Harper a beautiful young woman had appeared and was holding him with one hand while looking around the cave. More specifically she was looking at the squad of 25 armed Lancers that had appeared behind him. Harper and the Lancers were all wearing headlamps which provided sufficient light to see by.

"Look out!" he shouted, his eyes locked on the ceiling. The Lancers followed his gaze and whirled around to face the danger. But it was too late. A gigantic blade swung down from the ceiling, instantly decapitating two Lancers in the center of the cave. The rest of them shrank back from the carnage and aimed their guns toward the ceiling, but it was impossible to see what was up there in the formless darkness.

Two arms silently extruded from one side of the cave, wrapping around two of the Lancers who had stepped close to the cave walls. As they both shouted in surprise, the rest of the Lancers brought their weapons to bear, but did not fire for fear of harming the captives. Maybe they should have. The cave extrusions covered the Lancers from head to foot, so only their outlines were visible. Then, horribly, the extrusions _constricted_ until they were no more than a cube one foot on a side. Retreating back into the wall, the extrusions left behind two tightly compacted heaps of material on the cave floor. The three women were thankful that the cave was not brightly lighted

The Lancers moved to the center of the cave and stood back to back with guns raised. They whispered among themselves, and suddenly one of the Lancers took aim with a gauss rifle and blew Reese's arm off at the shoulder. Harper ran toward the Lancers, opening the dead fingers and dropping the dead arm on the floor. As Reese screamed in pain and rage, the cave attacked.

But the Lancers were ready. The O'Neill bug squashers erupted with flames, sloughing the Replicator cells off the walls and ceiling of the cave. Giant constructs rushed at them from all sides, only to be reduced to component pieces. Several of the Lancers were relating a running commentary on the radio, but Harper could not hear the words over the roar of the guns. He had retrieved a gauss rifle and was firing at whatever he could see, but he was afraid he wasn't doing much damage. It appeared that the entire cave was covered to a depth of about twelve inches with Replicator cells. The Replicator cells were moving, massing in some areas and becoming sparse in others, so it was becoming difficult to know where to fire to get the maximum effect. As the gunfire died down, Beka, Evie and Rommie could hear Reese screaming angry threats from deeper in the cave. They looked back toward her and noticed that her arm had grown back. As she waved her arms this way and that, the cave Replicators seemed to follow her motions as though she were a conductor and they were the orchestra. "She's the damn Replicator Queen" Beka commented with revulsion.

Harper's gauss rifle ran out of ammunition and the action locked back, ready to accept another magazine full of rounds. Harper looked around for another magazine, but couldn't find one. Two of the bug squashers had run out of ammunition at the same time, and it was taking longer than planned to connect a fresh magazine. They had practiced in the staging area under the bright lights, but the cave was dark and the connections required a certain amount of dexterity. Harper looked at a large wave of Replicators rolling toward him, directed by an angrily shrieking Reese, and prepared to meet his end.

The air around him appeared to shimmer, and the approaching wave collapsed. Reese raised one arm as if to ward off a blow, but it made no difference as she melted into the floor. Replicator chips rained down from the walls and ceiling, completely dead. Harper spun around and looked toward the cave entrance.

Hovering at the entrance to the cave that had suddenly appeared, her force fields depressing a huge crater in the ground, the _Samantha Carter_ fired the Weapon of the Ancients into the cave, killing the last Replicators in the cave.

Harper stood there as if in shock for a minute while the ship, the cave entrance and the remaining Lancers shimmered and disappeared. After a few more moments the dead Replicators began to form up in piles until there were three distinct piles, which began to grow. They grew slowly at first but faster as they grew bigger. As they grew bigger the individual Replicators started to flow together, joining into humanoid shapes. In a matter of minutes where there had been a swarm of Replicators there now stood 3 large Dragans.

One of them said loudly, "Kludge, we have you now you good for nothing trouble maker. "

As he said that the other two each took hold of one of Harper's arms. As soon as they had his arms his feet came free of the ground. Harper struggled hopelessly to get away. The leader held out a bloody tin whistle before Harper's eyes. When he saw it a look of fear and recognition came across his face.

"You recognize this don't you, Kludge."

Harper looked the Dragan in the eye and said defiantly "No, but if you blow on it real hard I might be able to recognize the sound, you big stupid Uber."

Upon hearing this, the leader hit Harper in the mouth.

With his mouth bleeding Harper smiled and said, "Is that all you got, my little sister can hit harder than that and she's a weakling Kludge."

Enraged by the insult the leader launched a flurry of blows upon Harper. As the blows landed Harper continued to insult the Nietzscheans. All the while this was going on Evie was calling to Harper, begging him to stop and listen to her. Meanwhile Rommie tried shooting them with her force lance with the effects as with the Magog.

"Evie he is trying to get them to kill him so they can't torture him later." Beka said trying to get Evie's attention.

As soon as she had said this the Dragan leader stopped saying, "Take him away we don't want to kill him now when we can make a proper example of him." As he was saying this a large hole appeared in the cave wall where none had been before. The Dragans carried Harper through the opening which was now large enough for three men to walk through side by side. Without a moments hesitation the women followed them through the opening.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Hangar Deck 3**_

"Andromeda did the courier say anything else besides that he had an urgent communiqué from Admiral Tanaka and some passengers to be transferred here?"

"No Dylan, the pilot said nothing more than that." Andromeda replied over his personal com link.

A few seconds later the hatch to the hanger slid open and Dylan, accompanied by a Lancer security detail, went in to greet the pilot and the passengers as they began to disembark from their transport. The first person to disembark was a short woman with oriental features wearing an Argosy uniform with the half moon pin of a Lieutenant Junior Grade on her collar and carrying an attaché case. She came to attention, saluted and said in a brisk tone, "Lt. Junior grade Haeyu reporting sir."

Dylan returned the salute and replied, "At ease Lieutenant I have been told that you have a communiqué from Fleet Admiral Tanaka and some passengers for me."

"Yes sir." she replied the tone of her voice and the stiffness of her at ease stance telling him that she had recently graduated from the academy.

"Well I am waiting Lt." Dylan said in a calm even tone of voice as he suppressed a chuckle at Lt. Haeyu's obvious nervousness.

"Yes sir, sorry sir" she said, handing the attaché case to him. As she handed over the case three High Guard Lancers exited the transport. One was male and the other two were female. The male was about two meters tall with a stocky build, close cropped black hair, brown eyes and weathered looking skin, he also had a noticable limp in his left leg. The first woman was slightly shorter than the man with shoulder length brown hair tied up in a bun, a very attractive face with blue eyes that appeared to be hard as diamonds and light brown skin. She moved with a cat like grace that made Dylan think of a tigress on the hunt. The other female was somewhat shorter, had a slightly heavier build with fair skin, short bright red hair, green eyes she had some very noticeable scars around her right eye making it obvious the right eye was a cybernetic implant. All three had the unmistakable look of career soldiers who were also experienced combat veterans. Dylan had the distinct impression that he wouldn't like to meet them in a dark alley unless they were on his side. As they came closer Dylan realized that they seemed familiar to him but he couldn't remember when or where he had seen them before.

The three Lancers came to attention next to the Lt. and saluted. "Gunnery Sergeant Samuda, Staff Sergeant Haulder and Lancer First Class Dow requesting permission to come aboard," Sgt. Samuda said briskly. As soon as he heard the man's voice Dylan remembered who they were; they had met briefly during the Replicator invasion of Arzawa III.

"Permission granted and welcome aboard the Andromeda Ascendant." Dylan replied as he returned their salute. "May I ask what the purpose of your visit is?"

"You will find a copy of our orders in the communiqué along with a personal message from Fleet Admiral Tanaka which will explain the situation sir."

"Thank you Sgt. That will be all for now. I will have someone show you around and help you with anything you need." Dylan turned to the leader of the security unit saying, "Sgt. I want your unit to get all our visitors settled in."

_**Dylans Office**_

Once Dylan entered his office he opened the attaché case and took out a flexi and a holo recording. First he looked at the flexi, which had the orders for Gunnery Sgt. Samuda, SSgt. Haulder and LFC Dow. Their orders were to interview and evaluate selected Lancers for suitability as members of Argosy Special Operations operatives. Dylan also noticed that the orders came from Adm. Tanaka's office. The rest was just typical updates of the information on the sectors they were operating in at the moment. After reading the flexi he set it on his desk and looked at it wondering what it was that was important enough to send a courier after his ship instead of to his next listed port of call. Whatever it was it certainly wasn't the orders or the information on the flexi.

Dylan turned on the holo recording and a miniature hologram of Adm. Tanaka appeared above the recorder. The hologram smiled then went on to say, "Hello Dylan, I wish I didn't have to send you this message but recent events have made it necessary.. I shouldn't be even telling you this, but it has come to my attention that you and your crew will be given a surprise inspection by the Inspector General's office at your next scheduled stop at a High Guard base. There will be an inspection team waiting when you arrive. They will focus on the morale of the crew and your command staff." Tanaka paused and reached for something off camera with his right hand and a flexi appeared in his hand a moment later.

"This is a memo that I received recently from the Inspector Generals office." He raised the flexi and began to read it aloud.

"To all Argosy Fleet Admirals, effective immediately the Inspector General's office will randomly select ships to be inspected. The inspection will evaluate ships operations, combat readiness and morale."

"An old friend of mine at the IG's office who was in charge of distributing these memos added a handwritten note saying that he was sorry that he wouldn't be able to make it to the reunion next month and signed it AA Dennison. Dylan in all the years that I have known him Denny has never signed a note to me this way. So I took a closer look at his note which tells me that they are going to target the Andromeda for an inspection and that they are gonna be looking very hard at you and your command staff. It's all here in black & white you just have to read between the lines." As he said that he held up the flexi a little higher to emphasize his words.

"This brings me to the reason why the Lancers who arrived with this message are there. They are there to conduct interviews but what they are really going to do is evaluate the crews moral and point out the things that you need to fix before you make your scheduled stop at Terazed. Please listen their recommendations and get everything ironed out. I fear that if the IG inspectors find anything amiss the Triumvir's, especially Tri-Jemma, will use it as an excuse to take the Andromeda from you and put one of their own men in as captain. I can't go into details but we cannot let that happen since there is far more at stake right now than just your future in the High Guard. I have found out that although the order to delete the AI's during the incident with the Replicators was given by the Triumvir's it did not originate there. I don't know who actually gave that order but I have my suspicions. I also fear that there was more to that order then we are aware of at this time." The admiral paused to take a drink, and as he did so a portion of a desk that the drink had been on became visible for a few seconds. Then he continued speaking, "I would like to bring to your attention that the courier Lt. JG. Yoshi Haeyu is my newest courier. She is fresh from the academy, which means she hasn't had a chance to learn anybody else's bad habits yet. She can be trusted completely with any message for me that you care to send with her. If you look at her closely," he said while reaching to pick up the glass again, "you will find that she is a fine young officer and that there are no doubts about where her loyalties lie. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon in this matter."

_**The Enlisted Men's Mess**_

Gunnery Sergeant Samuda and Staff Sergeant Haulder carried their trays to the table that Lancer First Class Dow was seated at. As they seated themselves at the table Dow looked at what they had on their trays and after seeing what Samuda had she asked, "Don't you ever get tired of that stuff? It is bad enough that they served SOS on every command I've ever served on and at just about every meal, but do you gotta load up on it every time you see it." she said pointing to the generous serving of chunks of beef in brown gravy on toast.

"Why, what's wrong with this stuff?" he asked just before transferring a bite of the SOS from his plate to his mouth.

"There's nothing wrong with it, it's just that you have it at almost every meal."

"Ok I will admit that I really like this stuff and you can't say that you don't like this stuff either Dow. I've seen you eat this stuff from time to time."

"I guess the question that I should have asked was why do you like it so much?"

"There's two reasons, the first one is because this stuff is so easy to make that there isn't a cook in the fleet, no make that the entire High Guard, that can mess this stuff up. Second and most importantly, I really love this stuff. Besides I bet that they have been serving it since the first army in history was formed."

"Can it you two," Haulder interrupted suddenly. "We've got more important things to talk about besides the food. Like how long do think it will be before Captain Hunt shows up to have a talk with us."

"I'll bet 5 thrones that he shows up before Samuda finishes his second helping." Dow replied with a grin.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Dylan's Office**_

Dylan thought about everything that Adm. Tanaka had just told him for a few minutes before he said to Andromeda, "Andromeda, please tell Lt. Haeyu that I would like her to report to my office as soon as possible." Almost immediately afterwards the door to his office opened and the Lt entered. It was apparent to Dylan from her immediate arrival that she had been waiting just outside his office. As he watched, Lt. Haeyu came to attention and saluted: he wondered if he had been as stiff and nervous on his first command out of the academy. He smiled to himself remembering the first time he had reported for duty; he had been just as nervous as the Lt standing before him appeared to be.

"At ease Lt." he said as he sat back down in his chair only then realizing that he had been standing. "Sit down and make yourself comfortable." As he watched her Dylan thought that she looked familiar but couldn't quite figure out why. Then as his eyes swept across his desk he saw the holo recording. He quickly turned on the recording, pausing it and then enlarging the image. The resemblance was there but it was not easily noticed unless you were looking for it.

Yoshi watched Dylan as he examined her and the holo image of Adm. Tanaka, wondering if he would make the connection. She could hardly believe that she was actually aboard the pride of the old Commonwealth's High Guard Fleet. To actually set foot aboard the Andromeda Ascendant was something that she had imagined doing when a cadet at the academy but hadn't really believed that it would ever happen. She had never in her wildest dreams imagined that she would be face to face with the legendary Captain Dylan Hunt; except that he wasn't the legendary Captain Dylan Hunt she had heard of while in the Academy. Now that she was here in front of him she could see that what her father had said about him was correct, Dylan Hunt the man was not Dylan Hunt the legend. She could see that he wasn't the perfect High Guard Captain the stories made him out to be. The thought that her last boy friend had looked more like Dylan Hunt the legend than the man in front of her helped to set her even more at ease. Here she was sitting in his office waiting to tell him about her parents as Adm Tanaka had told her to do and now the task seemed merely difficult rather than impossible like it had before. Suddenly Dylan's voice interrupted her train of thought.

"Andromeda privacy mode," he said as he leaned back in his chair. He look at the image of Tanaka then back to her once more before stating "I didn't know that Admiral Tanaka had any children."

When she heard that statement the lump that had been in the pit of her stomach leaped into throat forcing her to swallow before responding. "Sir, only six people are aware of that fact and three of them are dead now." she said with a tear in her eye as she said the last part. Before Dylan could respond she wiped away the tear and continued. "Admiral Tanaka, Hitomi Takahashi who was my mother, Akira and Ai Haeyu who adopted me, myself and you are the only ones who know." As soon as she said that she felt a wave of relief wash over her.

"Captain Hunt, the Adm... my father asked me to tell you about them. He said that you should know, but he also said he would never be able to tell you himself. When he was the captain of the Ne'Holland Home Guard heavy cruiser Achilles Sword my mother was his tactical officer and they fell in love. When she became pregnant everyone had assumed that she had been having an affair with the junior officer who had been killed in an accident shortly before it became apparent that she was pregnant. She went to live with her sister Ai while she had me. While there she confided with her sister and brother-in-law about the whole situation. My mother really wanted to continue to serve in the Home Guard with my father and since Ai and her husband couldn't have children she thought that she could leave me with them to be adopted as their daughter. That way I would have both a mother and father at home, she could go back to be with the man she loved and father would not be involved in a scandal that would hurt his career. My father knew nothing of this until my mother had returned to the ship to resume her post. Two years later there was an accident involving a plasma conduit."

As soon as Dylan heard that he understood immediately just how bad the situation must have been. Plasma was a by-product of the Proton/Antiproton reactions within an AP reactor, which consists of a gas heated to such high temperatures that its atoms ionized. While the AP reactor supplied power to a starships slipstream drive and main systems, it was the heat generated by the plasma system that powered all of a ships secondary systems and charged the emergency power storage cells. The newest OLD Commonwealth DSA attack ships used a form of cold plasma shielding as a type of energy screen. Cold in this case was a relative term. Dylan had read reports about various planetary Home Guard units experimenting on ways to duplicate the old Commonwealth system. Maybe the Achilles was equipped with a prototype of that system. From what Dylan had read they had not yet developed a reliable system.

Lt. Haeyu's voice brought Dylan's thoughts back to the present. "They had been testing a prototype of a new cold plasma system on the Achilles and apparently some of the alterations caused a weak spot in one of the plasma conduits. My mother had been inspecting the starboard missile magazine when the plasma conduit in that section ruptured starting a fire that would quickly set off the magazine. My father ordered that section sealed and the atmosphere vented to put out the fire before it could set off the magazine. He saved the ship but at the cost of the lives of 14 crewmen and my mother, the woman he loved was one of them. The worst part was that he knew she was in there at the time. My father says that that was the hardest order he ever had to give and that it still haunts him to this day." Yoshi paused to wipe the tears from her eyes before continuing.

"My parents decided to tell me about my mother and her sacrifice when I was old enough to understand it. They also explained to me that it was they who decided that my father shouldn't acknowledge me publicly for my sake not his. After seeing what happens to the children of high ranking officers in the academy I am glad that they did that." Yoshi sighed with relief and relaxed as she awaited Dylan's response.

_**The Enlisted Men's Mess**_

"You got yourself a bet," Haulder said as she accepted Dow's bet.

"While I was waiting for you two to get here I was listening to some of the men talking." Dow said a little quieter than her usual tone of voice . "I heard a pretty wild rumor. Get this, some people are saying that Harper has been possessed by none other than an alien energy creature which is making him as insane as a rabid Magog.." Dow chuckled at the absurdity of the statement.

Samuda looked at her in surprise and said, "Harper? You don't mean the Harper who invented those bugsquashers we used on Arzawa III?" he said in disbelief.

"The one and the same. I even checked the ship's personnel roster to be sure." Dow said pointing to the flexi on the table. "There is only one Harper onboard right now and that is Seamus Zelazny Harper the Chief Engineer."

"Well I heard one saying that a Lancer named McGrady cut him down like a mad dog earlier because he shot up his some of his engineering staff for no reason." Haulder said.

"Well when I was in the head I heard that his brain is getting fried by spending so much time jacked in to the ships computer, messing around with the ships Avatar and making time with the "Hot" new android babe in Med Deck. That is supposed to be what caused his breakdown and that is why the senior medicasl officer is busy doing psychic surgery on him right now." Samuda started to chuckle as he said the last part. "What in the world is psychic surgery?"

"I don't know but whatever it is it sounds serious. I wonder what happened that caused all these rumors," Haulder asked? "Listen guys, while we wait for the Captain to show up lets keep our ears open and see what other rumors we can pick up."

"I don't doubt what you say but I gotta ask, what makes you so sure that Captain Hunt is going to come see us rather than have us go see him in his office.?" Dow asked?

Samuda replied by asking, "How many IG inspections have you been in or witnessed Dow?"

"None, but we aren't IG inspectors."

"No we aren't but we are here to help them get ready for one. I have had the misfortune to have been through 5 of them myself and Haulder's been through how many 3 or 4?"

"Three," Haulder said holding up three fingers.

"What I want to say is that an IG inspection is so thorough that you haven't had an inspection until you've had an IG inspection. Now me and Haulder here have been unfortunate enough to have been through more than our share and we know what they'll be looking at. Plus we also know that when it comes to an IG inspection the CO hasn't been born that will stay away from an inspection."

_**Back to Harpers Nightmare**_

When they emerged from the opening in the cave the three women found themselves in an open area that seemed to be a town square. Within the square they saw several whipping posts, gibbets, gallows and crosses. They were well used as could be seen by the blood soaked ground around them and the two decaying bodies suspended from the gallows. As they watched Harper being secured to one of the whipping posts and his shirt was being ripped from his back a crowd materialized around the square. The numerous Dragan guards around the crowd let the women know that the crowd wasn't there voluntarily. When the Dragans finished securing Harper they brought forward two more prisoners and began to fasten them to the other whipping posts.

"Let them go. They didn't do anything, my parents didn't do anything to you." Harper begged them in a voice that was full of sorrow and defeat which broke Evie's heart and made Beka wince as if in pain.

The Dragans continued what they were doing as if they had not heard a word that he had said. When they finished securing Harpers mother and father to the posts two Dragans approached them from behind, each bearing a cat of nine tails in his hand. The Dragan leader who had captured Harper stepped close to him and said with wicked look in his eyes, "I'm going to give them 20 lashes each and I want you to watch every single stroke. If you look away or close your eyes kludge I will just start all over again."

After saying that he stepped back to give Harper a clear view and began to count off the strokes in a loud clear voice. "One ... Two ... Three ... Four ... Five."

As each stroke landed Harper jerked as if he had also been struck by the whips. At the 10th stroke Harper's mother fainted from the pain. The Dragan leader stopped the count until she could be revived. When she had fully regained consciousness the leader resumed his count "Eleven ...Twelve...Thirteen."

Before the count finally reach twenty his both parents had to be revived two more times. When the count was finished all three hung limply from their bonds. The Dragans splashed a bucket of water on each of his parents bleeding backs washing away the blood. Immediately after that two more buckets were brought forth and the contents were flung onto their backs. When the white substance which had been in the buckets touched them they screamed in agony and shortly after that both passed out from the pain as their Dragan captors laughed at their agony.

While they were unconscious the Dragans released them from the whipping posts and dragged them over to a spot between the gibbets and the crosses. When Harper saw where they were being taken a horrified look came over his face. While they were being revived onceagain the leader said to Harper "Kludge you must watch this also and if you look away or close your eyes I will chose two more and start all over again. Now choose the gibbets or the cross, the gallows are to quick and merciful."

Harper blanched even whiter than he already was when he heard that. He looked at his parents then said one word, "Gibbets."

As soon as they were revived and brought to their feet and a noose was placed around each of their necks. Then the leader gave the signal to hoist up off the ground so the noose would just slowly strangle them instead of breaking their necks. They were suspended by their necks until they were on the verge of losing conciousness then they were dropped to the ground. As they were catching their breath ropes were tied to their arms and legs, one rope to each limb. At the end of each rope was a pair Dragans. When the ropes were ready each pair pulled in a different direction with all their might. The Dragans pulling on the ropes seemed to get great enjoyment out of the suffering of their victims and goaded each other to pull even harder. After what seemed like an eternity the leader gave the signal to stop and a pair of Dragans approached the man and woman, each bearing a large wicked looking blade in their hands.

All during this Beka, Rommie and Evie had been too stunned and horrified to say or do anything. Harper had told Evie about his life on Earth, but nothing he had told her had prepared her for this. Unlike Beka and Rommie she had never experienced anything that had even remotely prepared her for this experience, not even the loss of her crew and sisters/self. Rommie in an effort to offer Evie some small measure of support and consolation during the ordeal had put an arm around Evie's shoulders. Evie knowing what would come next could not bring her to watch and hid her face in Rommie's shoulder. She knew that there was nothing they could do for Harper because the things they were seeing were his memories and could not be altered no matter how much they wanted to change them. As she fought to ignore the screams that filled her ears she was sickened by the knowledge that sentient intelligent beings could do such horrible things to one another. She felt that she was finally beginning to understand Harper's hatred of the Nietzscheans and the Magog. As their screaming came to a sudden halt she wondered how a person could live through such ordeals and still be such kind, decent and loving man as Harper was. When she lifted her head from Rommie's shoulder she realized that she had been crying. As she wiped the tears from her eyes, the world around them began to melt away and fade into blackness.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Dylan's Office**_

After he dismissed Lt. Haeyu Dylan watched Admiral Tanaka's message once more. When the message finished he still felt that he was missing something important. Finally he decided that he would give it a rest and go talk to the Lancer's who had been assigned to help him get through the upcoming inspection. With that thought he remembered he still had the problem with Beka to take care of. He wondered how could he could solve that problem and salvage his friendship with her. As he thought about that problem remembered his discussion he had with Andromeda about it.

_"Is there anything that I can do to fix this problem?"_

_"Yes there is."_

_"Well what is it, what do I need to do?"_

_"Dylan I think you already know what you need to do." _

_"No, I don't know what it is, if I knew I wouldn't be asking." _

_"Dylan, it wouldn't do any good for me to tell you what it is, you have to figure it out for yourself. I can tell you that it is something you should have done a long time ago."_

According to what he had been told by Andromeda the solution was easy and he already knew what it was. Plus she thought that he should have done it long ago. Although it seemed like that discussion took place days ago it had only been at lunchtime earlier that day. Now it was dinner time already and he still wanted to talk to Sgt. Samuda, Sgt. Haulder and Lfc. Dow before it got to late. At least he knew exactly where the Lancers would be at chow time. "Andromeda I am going to the enlisted mens mess and I don't want to be interrupted unless it is an emergency or news about a change in Harper's condition."

_**Enlisted Mess**_

When Dylan entered the mess hall he decided that he might as well get something to eat while he was there, so he went to the end of one of the two chow lines and waited his turn. As he stepped in line he heard the chatter of the people nearest him stop and the tone of the rest of the people became a little more hushed and apprehensive. The lines moved steadily and quickly so it wasn't long before had shown his id to the clerk who recorded it as required by High Guard regulations. This simple process brought back memories of when he had been an enlisted man before the fall of the commonwealth. "Some things never change," he said quietly as he finished getting his meal and he looked around the busy chow hall. It didn't take long to spot the lancers he was looking for. As Dylan got closer he noticed that one of the tables near them was empty and not easily visible from where they sat. So he sat there and began to eat his meal of SOS and vegetables while listening to what they were talking about.

Dylan heard Sgt. Samuda say "Well what ever happened to Mr. Harper it better be resolved and have him back on duty before they dock at Terazed." Samuda paused long enough to shovel the last of his food into his mouth. "That is the kind of thing the inspectors will be looking for so they can take his command from him," he said, his voice slightly muffled by the food in his mouth.

"Damn it Samuda didn't your mother teach you any manners." Haulder complained jokingly.

"Nah, she figured it would just be a waste of her time."

"Well whatever happened to Mr. Harper I hope I get a chance to thank him personally for what he did on Arzawa III before we are through here." Dow said emphatically. "You know as well as I do that if it hadn't been for the Bugsquashers he invented we most likely would have had our asses kicked by the bugs . Heck we probably wouldn't even be here if it hadn't been for him. I also know that he isn't High Guard and that is the reason most of the brass won't even acknowledge what he did let alone give him the credit he deserves."

When Dylan heard that he thought about the events in the Arzawa system. He was well aware that on Arzawa II his victory was due to the fact that he had had superior weapons and the advantage of a larger force of trained troops. He had simply outclassed his opponents in every way. From what he knew of the situation on Arzawa III the mission would have been considered a success if they had just managed to hold the Replicators there and keep them from advancing any further until reinforcements could arrive. Harper had changed all that when he made the Bugsquashers, he had made a victory over the Replicators possible without having to wait for reinforcments.

When the battle for the system was over Dylan had received many commendations and compliments on a job well done by himself and his crew. Afterwards he had spoken to a number of the Lancers from his command who had been involved in action on Arzawa II passing on to them the compliments and the credit they deserved. He had even awarded some of them citations and medals. But now that he thought of it he had not done any of those things with his command staff and he couldn't even recall if he even complemented them for a job well done. Beka, Trance, Tyr and Harper had all done outstanding jobs, each of them going well beyond the call of duty. Not just then but many other times as well and always with little or no recognition of their contributions. Each of them had more than earned the recognition that they might have received had they been High Guard Officers instead. Dylan wondered if he was just as prejudiced against them because they weren't High Guard just like so many of the other high Guard officers were.

After a few moments thought on that possibility Dylan said in a soft but hopeful tone, "Andromeda, do you think that I am prejudiced against Beka, Harper, Trance and Tyr because they are not High Guard officers?"

At that moment on the medical deck Trance's assistant medical technicians saw a faraway look come over her face. If any of them had been close enough they would have heard her say quietly "If he could only set aside his pride and eliminate his prejudice altogether. He could truly become the captain he imagines himself to be."

As Dylan posed the question, Core said to Logic in the VR matrix "At least he is finally starting to ask the right questions."

"Yes," replied Logic, "But will he understand what he needs to do before it is to late for it to do any good.?"

"I certainly hope so since all of them really working together the way they should can be so much more than they have been."

"Indeed, but Dylan keeps making the same stupid mistakes over and over which keeps them from becoming the team that they could be."

On the mess deck a miniature Logic appeared on the table in front of Dylan and said "Dylan why don't you tell me; are you prejudiced against them because they aren't High Guard?"

After pondering the question for almost a minute Dylan looked at Logic and said "I don't know how to answer that. I thought that I was above that kind of thing but now I am not sure anymore."

"Then perhaps you should think about it some more", said Andromeda's holographic image just before she winked out.

Immediately after that Dylan heard Samuda belch loudly and say "I would like to have more but three servings of SOS is my limit cause I gotta watch my figure or I won't be able to get lucky when in port." Dylan heard the two women groan in response to that statement. Then Dylan saw Samuda stand and pick up his tray. When Samuda turned to leave the table he saw saw the Captain, smiled and said "Hello Captain Hunt, would you care to join us?"

Before he could respond Dylan heard Haulder laugh and say, "Pay up Dow."

_**Back to Harper's Nightmare**_

As the world came back into focus the women found themselves on the cat walk in the portside reactor core room of the Andromeda. They heard the piercing cries of the Magog that had forced their way through the two doors that had sealed off the control room from the rest of the ship but were giving way to the efforts of the numerous Magog behind them. At the reactor control panel, Harper was disconnecting himself from the VR matrix while Tyr was standing guard shooting the Magog forcing their way in. Harper sees that Tyr is being overrun pulls his Gauss pistol out of his holster and shoots a Magog that is about to attack Tyr from behind. He looks at Tyr and says, "Lucky shot."

"Are you through?" asks Tyr.

"I've started the reintegration of Andromeda's memories, but if I can stay here and monitor it, I may be able to speed up the process."

Tyr turns to shoot at a Magog coming from behind them then says, "Or you might die. Now we run."

As they watched the events Beka said softly "I should have known that this would be one his nightmares. Even I have nightmares about this day and that wasn't nearly as bad as what they went through." pointing to Tyr and Harper as she said that.

"Why do you say that?" asked Evie.

"Because this is when Harper got infested with Magog larvae." answered Rommie.

As soon as Tyr and Harper exited the reactor core control room the scene shifted again blurring and then reforming into on of the onboard machine shops. As the women oriented themselves one of the two hatches leading into the compartment opened and Tyr and Harper scrambled into the room firing at the horde of Magog chasing them. As Tyr locked the hatch shut Harper checked his guass pistol.

"I'm out. Typical." said Harper.

They start to leave by the other door, but that one had Magog outside it, also.

"I don't suppose you have any ammo left." Harper said to Tyr.

Tyr checked his weapon's magazine then said "I've got one round."

"One round. One round is good. One round is good." Harper said in a scared tone.

He stood up and squared his shoulders determinedly.

Tyr looked at him then asked "Would you like to close your eyes?"

Harper nodded and closed his eyes, but as Tyr starts to aim at him, he appeared to reconsider and said "W-W-W-Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. I was thinkin'. Maybe they're not so tough, you know? Maybe, uh, maybe we can, uh, take 'em in hand-to-hand combat." Then laughing a little hysterically he continued to say, "What do you think?"

Tyr grinned and said "That's my BOY!"

One of the doors started to opening, and Tyr fired his last round at the Magog that was trying to squeeze through, then threw the gun after it and said "Now I've got none."

Then as both doors started to be pried open Harper and Tyr stood back to back. Tyr pulled out a dagger and offered it to Harper.

As he did that Tyr said "Sire." and while Harper took the dagger he continued to say "Shall we dance, Master Harper?"

"You do care."

Moments after that Magog started to pour in quickly overwhelming the two.

"This was a real good idea." Harper said with sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Where there is life, there is hope!" Tyr replied defiantly just before the two of them were pulled down by the horde of Magog.

Abruptly the women were no longer on the Andromeda but on a planet with hoards of rampaging Magog all around them. As they watched they saw scores of people being infested with Magog larvae or being killed and eaten. After a few moments Beka said "Rommie, does this seem familiar to you?"

"Yes it does, this is the file we saw of Brandenburg Tor. In fact this is the same file and not just a memory of it." replied Rommie.

"Are you sure about that?" 

"Yes, I just checked and this is definitely a data file and not Harpers memory of the file. It shouldn't be here though because I know that Trance deleted it along with all the other files that were downloaded into him. Both Trance and I checked to make sure nothing was left behind."

"Damn it, Harper." Beka exclaimed in frustration. "You know what this means. It means that he downloaded it into his brain again, along with who knows what else."

A few seconds later the recording of the Magog attack at Brandenburg Tor ended to be replaced not by another memory but by a series of incomprehensible mathematical equations and symbols The symbols bobbed and wove past the women like a school of fish swimming in the current of a river. Puzzled, but at the same time amused Evie reached out a hand to touch one of the symbols as it passed near her. There was a musical tone much like the purest of all chords. The musical tone faded from hearing and as it faded the women heard a voice coming from all around them saying "In the place where the ancients of old once dwelt lies the means to bring to pass your fondest dreams. It needs only determination, knowledge and guidance to do so." As the voice spoke the symbols shrank to a myriad of stars which coalesced into an image of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The image of the Milky Way faded and transformed; they were now onboard the Maru near the airlock. Harper and an image of Beka were carrying a badly wounded Perseid out of the airlock.

"Come on. Ok, Ok, down we go." Harper said as they set him down on the deck to tend to his wounds.

"Ok, keep pressure on the wound." Beka told Harper as she sealed the airlock hatch. "We gotta get him back to the Andromeda." Moments later the Perseid regained consciousness. "Hey, who shot you?" Beka asked him.

"Save. Must save." the Perseid replied weakly.

"We're doing the best we can, pal. Hang in there." Harper told him.

While Harper was speaking the PPerseid stared at the dataport in Harpers neck then abruptly lunged forward grabbing him around the neck and they fell in a tangle onto the deckplates. Beka's image immediately tried to stop him, but was knocked backwards.

Evie rushed forward to help Harper but as she came near the struggling pair she noticed a small emblem on the forefinger of the Perseid's left hand. It was a small equilateral triangle above two larger triangles; in the center of the small triangle was a stylized eye. An image of the Perseid researcher Tamenot, who had come to Evie on the Ever Vigilant Eye filled Evie's mind. The image of Tamenot was replaced by an image of a book with the same symbol on the cover as was on the Perseid's forefinger. When she saw it she stopped as if she had hit a wall.

"Hey!" exclaimed the Beka memory bringing Evie back to what was happening, but not before Rommie noticed that Evie appeared to be in a trance for a few moments.

It looked like the Perseid was trying to bite Harper but as he opened his mouth there was an energy discharge from his mouth into Harper's dataport. When the discharge ended the Perseid collapsed onto the deck.

"Harper!" cried out the image of Beka.

"I'm on fire! I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" Harper screamed out in panic as he writhed in agony.

"No. No. No fire. No fire. You're ok. You're ok." Beka's image consoled him trying to calm him down.

As the Perseid died on the deck the scene changed once more. When their surroundings finished transforming the women found themselves in large cavern. Harper and Tyr were stuck to a cavern wall by some sort of sticky substance.

"Oh, man." Harper said groggily almost groaning out the words. TThen he looked around noticing where he was and saw Tyr stuck to the wall beside him.

"Tyr? Tyr! Are you ok?" he said. He suddenly cried out from pain and looked down at his stomach. A horrified expression came over his face. "Oh, nonononono. No, not the eggs. They didn't infest me with Magog eggs. Help! Help! Somebody! Somebody help me! Oh, please…Help! HEEEEELP!" he cried out in horror as he realized that he had been infested with Magog larvae and that he was going to die by being eaten from the inside.

"Tyr! Oh, man, don't be dead. You can't be dead. I mean, crap, I'm alive. And, uh, I'm just a pathetic little kludge, right? I mean, you – you're a Nietzschean. You're an über."

"Don't ever call me that." Tyr replied

"Hah! I knew you were alive!"

"Yes, I'm alive. And attempting to make our opponents forget about us."

"Oh, you wanna make them feel over-confident? I got an idea. Why don't we let them paralyze us, bind us to the wall, and infect us with their Magog eggs? Oh, gee, we did that already. Boy, we got them right where we want them."

"Your little melodrama isn't making things any better."

"No, but it's not making things any worse. You know why? Because they

couldn't BE any worse."

"You could be unconscious, or dead. You're neither."

"So now we get to be awake when the eggs hatch and the little Magog larvae eat their way out through our guts. You're right, that is better."

"When your parents combined their DNA, the odds that they would create a person with your precise genetic pattern were on the order of ten million to one. Factor in the chance of your parents growing to adulthood, meeting, and actually bothering to procreate, and your very existence has all the likelihood of drawing three straight Imperial Courts in an honest game of Vedran Whist. You've already overcome those odds once. Who's to say you can't do it again?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where there's life there's hope – faint, infinitesimal, minuscule, microscopic, virtually undetectable hope – but hope, nonetheless."

"Please, SHUT UP and let me think." Tyr said and immediately after saying that the their surroundings changed again and the women found themselves back on the Maru standing in the bridge. They could see Beka seated in the pilots seat while Harper entered the bridge. Beka felt a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach hoping that this wasn't what she thought it was.

"Boss? I just wanted to come by and tell you I have the utmost, uh, confidence in your ability to sm...What in the name of the Vedran Empress?"

When the image of Beka turned to look at him, and her eyes were white from the flash, Beka knew it was what she feared it was.

"Walk away. You were never here." the other Beka snapped at Harper.

"You're doing flash. I don't believe it. Flash? Beka, come on. You know what that stuff does to people. People kill over that stuff – their family and friends. Did you know that 82 percent of people on prison planets are flash addicts?"

"Do you know what? They tell you that kind of stuff just to scare you."

"Sure. To scare you out of killing your neighbors."

"Look, I'm not gonna pretend this crap is good for me. I know first-hand what flash can...I'm using minuscule doses. For a limited time. It's medicine, and it's working. You saw – you heard what Dylan said."

"If it's such good medicine, why don't you tell Dylan?"

"Because Dylan is Dylan. Dylan wouldn't cheat on his FTA dues. Besides, it's none of his business what I put in my bloodstream."

"Fine. It's your brain. But I don't like to see you like this, Rebecca. I'm just trying to help."

"Then leave. Then just leave. Leave! And let me do my job! You know, Harper, I've saved your skin before, and I'll save it again. But you have got to get off my back or SO HELP ME, I will drop you back on the trash heap where I found you!"

When Beka heard herself say that she wanted to hang her head in shame. She wished that she could go back in time and stop herself from saying that to him.

"OK." Harper replied with a look in his eyes like his best friend had just ripped out his heart and thrown it on the floor.

As he turned to leave Beka involuntarily said to him, "Harper I am so sorry and I would never do that."

As soon as she said that Harper stopped then turned slowly, looking first at the spot where Beka was standing then turning toward the other Beka. When the other Beka noticed that Harper hadn't left yet she snapped at him saying "GO AWAY. Leave me alone if you know what's good for you."

After hearing her other self say that Beka thought for a moment then said to Evie and Rommie "Guys that isn't the way it happened before, that last part is different. Harper heard me apologize as he was leaving and that changed it."


	13. Chapter 13

_**Harpers Nightmare**_

Evie and Rommie both looked at Beka for a few moments before Rommie asked "Are you sure about that? You were under the influence of a very powerful drug at the time."

"I'm positive about it. As much as I'd like to forget that whole incident it's still painfully clear in my memory and I'm sure that I didn't have to tell him to go away a second time."

As Beka spoke the bridge of the Maru began to change. When their surroundings stabilized they were on the command deck of the Andromeda. They could see Dylan, Beka, Rommie, Tyr, Harper and Trance, who was purple but had no tail, all watching a holographic message from Rev Bem.

The image of Rev was saying, "Ever since my time on the Magog world ship I've felt lost, confused. I don't have answers but it's time I started asking the questions wherever they might lead. Until I see you all again - know this, wherever my path may lead even in the darkest places I will carry you all in my heart and you will light my way always."

The message ended and the holographic image of Rev faded away; the image of Rommie said "That's the entire message."

Beka's image said "I knew he was having trouble but I didn't think it was this bad."

"The darkest places, I don't like the sound of that." Trance commented.

"Me neither." agreed Harper. "I say we track him down and drag him back here whether he wants to come or not."

In his characteristic tone of detachment Tyr said "Well he's a free ... being. He's made his will known."

"Besides even if we wanted to find him, where would we look?" Beka's image asked.

"Rev Bem can take care of himself and if he wants time to be alone I say we give it to him." Dylan said with a tone that implied that the discussion was over.

"Yeah, easy for you to say," Harper said in a bitter tone then walked away.

Abruptly they now found themselves in machine shop 17. Harper was there but before any of them could say anything Dylan entered the room saying, "Harper? Harper are you in here?"

"NO!" Harper responded emphatically.

"Look I know you're upset but if Rev has to take off ..."

As Dylan spoke Harper angrily walked away from him and interrupted saying, "Rev promised me he'd find a way to get these Magog parasites out of my gut before they killed me. He made me a promise and OOHH!" Harper moaned as he doubled over in pain, while Dylan rushed over to catch him before he hit the floor.

"Sit here, come on." Dylan said as he guided Harper to the bunk Harper had put installed in the machine shop. "Take your medicine, come on."

Harper inhaled the medicine that Rev had given him. Moment later while still wincing Harper said weakly, "It's not working."

"Just lie down, there you go." Dylan said as he helped Harper to lie down.

"To hell with this." Beka said in frustration and walked over to where Harper was with Rommie and Evie following close behind. When she got there Beka reached out to push Dylan away but her hand passed right through him. She remembered that she couldn't interact directly with anything there but she could still be seen and heard just like Logic did in the real world.

"Never mind him Beka." commented Rommie while Evie knelt beside Harper took his hand to comfort him. "Just focus on Harper."

"Harper," Beka said in a commanding tone trying to get his attention, "Harper listen to me."

In the background Beka could hear Dylan calling on his link, "Code red. Medical Emergency in machine shop 17!"

"Damn it Harper listen to me, you're going to be alright." Beka continued.

As Beka tried to get Harper's attention Rommie noticed that when Dylan said, "It's the Magog larvae in Harper's stomach. They're starting to hatch." He sounded faint and far away and when she looked at him she could see that he was fading away. "Keep it up Beka" she said to her friend, "it's working,"

When Beka heard this she continued redoubled her efforts, knowing rather than hoping that she was doing the right thing. "Listen to me Harper you're going to be all right. The Magog are not going to hatch."

After she said that Harper began to look straight at her as though he had heard her and was becoming more aware of them.

Rommie joined in with Beka's efforts saying "Remember what happened. Remember that Trance removed the larvae from you. "

Meanwhile Evie was reinforcing what the others were telling him by softly saying "Listen to them and remember. We need you to remember. You must remember ."

Harper seemed to almost be able to see them and he mumbled one word, "Trance."

Hearing him say that Rommie continued her efforts in saying, "Yes Trance, remember Trance. She removed the Magog larvae using the tesseract device that you and Hohne built."

Immediately after she said that Harper sat up with his eyes wide open as if in horror. Then he cried out loudly, "Hohne" Once again their surroundings changed, they were now in one of the Andromeda's many narrow somewhat triangular crawlways. With them in that crawlway, which just big enough for an average sized human to crouch in or crawl through, were Harper, Hohne and Rekeeb.

Hohne was speaking to the speaking to the other two as they were making their way through the crawlway, "Now don't you see? We're experiencing the distortions now so that means we must have failed somehow in the future. It's a classic predestination paradox. The activation may be unavoidable destiny."

"I don't believe in destiny and I don't even believe in density except in the hands of Perseid's." replied Harper as he stopped crawling and leaned against the side of the conduit. "It's a compliment. I believe in Seamus Zelazny Harper. I cogito therefore I sum and I sum to cogito the damn machine right out of existence, capiche?"

"I do, I actually do." answered Hohne. "You seek to defy fate through a sheer act of will."

"Yeah baby you better believe it; a man makes his own density." said Harper as he started making his way to the nearby exit.

"Destiny." Hohne corrected Harper.

"Yeah that too."

"Oh allow me." said Hohne as he placed his hand on Harpers shoulder as he started to squeeze past Harper and moved to exit the conduit first.

"Ok," Harper replied as he made room for him to pass by.

As Hohne exited the crawlway he passed through one of the temporal/spatial distortions which they had just been talking about. There was a glow of otherworldly light accompanied by a distorted wooshing noise as he went through the distortion. They could hear him as he cried out, "Ahhhh!"

As he fell Hohne frantically reached out to catch hold of the railing of the catwalk bridging the huge chamber which housed the slip core. He barely managed to grab onto the railing only a few feet from the slip core's master control panel mounted on the catwalk. "Oh my, I seem to have..." Hohne's voice broke off as he saw Harper climb out after him falling down onto the catwalk. A moment later Rekeeb fell onto the railing which he instinctively grabbed onto keeping himself from falling any further.

"Down here!" Hohne called out. "Mr. Harper?"

Harper jumped up and grabbed Rekeeb. "Oh no! Oh no you don't, come on!" he said. He pulled Rekeeb back to catwalk as Hohne's grip on the railing slipped a little more.

"Oh dear." said Hohne.

"Don't move Hohne!" Harper called to him.

"I'm afraid I've never been very good at this sort of thing. Mr. Harper..." Harper caught Hohne just as Hohne lost his grip on the railing. "Oh good show, ahhh." commented Hohne.

"Grab my shoulder, come on."

"Yes."

"Now on the count of three you're gonna climb up me, okay."

"Yeah"

"Ready? One, two three" Harper counted then pulled Hohne up but the Perseid immediately slipped back down again.

"Hang on, no! No don't, Dylan'll kill me!" Harper cried out as Hohne slipped even more. "Come on, no don't!"

Hohne screamed as he lost his grip on Harper's hand and fell into the slip core.

As Hohne fell his descent slowed to a crawl and they could hear Harper say "He died because of me just like in Boston they all died because of me."

_**Med Deck**_

While outwardly seeming calm and sure of the success of Harper's treatment. in reality Trance didn't feel that way at all. She was worried about Harper, Beka, Rommie and Evie but mostly Harper; if his condition didn't improve soon he might never recover. As Trance pondered the ramifications of that the readings on Harper's condition changed minutely. For an instant she thought something had gone wrong but quickly recognized the change as an improvement. When she saw that happen she felt like crying out in relief 'It's working, whatever you guys are doing keep it up.' Instead she sighed and looked up from the readouts only to see the rest of the med deck personnel staring at her. "Did I just say that out loud?" she asked. As she looked at them she could see that they all seemed relived, as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. She also noticed that the black mood that had permeated the med deck had lifted and had been replaced with one of hope.

_**Enlisted Mess**_

As Dylan approached the lancer's table Lfc. Dow asked if she could get him a cup of coffee while she was getting herself some. Dylan politely refused as he gazed at the flexies of notes and lists on the table he hesitated to sit down.

"You might as well join us Captain Hunt," Sgt. Haulder said as she motioned for Dow to get her a cup of coffee as well.

Dylan pointed at the flexies as he said, "I wouldn't want to interrupt what you're doing here."

"Forget about it, we were mainly listening to the chow hall gossip and that ended the moment you got in the chow line."

"Sorry about that." Dylan apologized as he sat down at the table.

"Like I said, forget about it, besides we were also waiting for you to show up also."

"You were waiting for me?"

"Of course we were. Let me guess, this is your first IG inspection." Haulder said with a grin on her face. Dylan nodded in agreement as Sgt. Samuda returned to the table.

"I thought that was the case when we received our orders from Adm. Tanaka, " said Sgt. Samuda pausing to take e drink of coffee before continuing. "Now before you ask why the Admiral sent us since we aren't inspectors ourselves, it is for that very reason. If you look carefully at our service records for the units, posts and dates we were assigned and compare them to inspection records you will see that between myself and Haulder here we have been through 8 IG inspections. Now you would never guess what Lancer Dow," he said, pointing to Dow as she joined them, "used to do before joining the High Guard Lancers. She was an inspector for the logistics department of her local Home Guard."

Dylan looked at Lfc. Dow with a surprised look on his face.

"I wasn't really an inspector," Dow explained. " I was a clerk in the inspectors office. I assisted the inspector by verifying all the unit records were in order and all the numbers matched."

"Ok let me clarify my statement, you were an inspector in everything but name in the logistics department of your local Home Guard." Samuda said with a sardonic grin on his face.

"I think I understand why you were given this assignment now." Dylan stated. "With your experience you know what the inspectors will be looking for and since none of you are and never have been inspectors no suspicions will be raised by your assignment. In other words you're perfect for the job." Dylan continued with a tone of admiration,. "Adm. Tanaka doesn't miss a trick does he."

"No he certainly doesn't." Haulder agreed. "The more I learn about him the more I admire him. He is one hell of a soldier."

After a few moments of silence Lfc. Dow said "Captain Hunt before you came in we heard a number of rumors about Mr. Harper. We were wondering if he was all right since all the rumors say he is in bad shape."

Dylan paused for a few moments to think before replying. "Well I am sure that you will hear all about it sooner or later so I might as well tell you what really happened." Then Dylan proceeded to tell them about Harper's invention and the events that followed. As he finished telling them the diagnoses and what Trance, Evie, Beka and Rommie were doing to help him he received a call from Trance on his link.

"Dylan there's been a change in Harper's condition and it looks like what they're doing is working."


	14. Chapter 14

_**Harper's Nightmare**_

When their surroundings stabilized they found themselves in the machine shop that Harper used while working on most of his smaller projects. The control panel in the center of the shop was beeping indicating the presence of a incoming communication. As they watched Harper approached the console and activated the message. A half sized hologram of a scruffy looking a blond haired man with a scraggly beard dressed in miss matched clothing, most of which were little better than rags, appeared before them. The women moved so that they could see both Harper and the hologram better

"Brendan!" Harper greeted the hologram cheerfully.

"Seamus, it's been a long time cuzo. Too long.

"Right back at ya." Harper replied as he made some adjustments on the console which enlarged the image to life size.

The hologram of Brendan continued, "Look, uhh I heard about you and your friends this new Commonwealth thing sounds like a choice scam. I wish I'd thought of it myself. The thing is, ummm we been hearing rumors back home that there's a war commin' between your Dylan and the Dragans. The Ubers are stocking up on workers, Seamus. Slave raids getting worse every day we need your help and more, when this war comes we want in. It's time Seamus. It's time to rise up and drive the Dragans off of Earth forever."

Harper stood there lost in thought for a several seconds after the message ended then said, "Andromeda save message Brendan Lahey and locate Beka please."

"Message saved and Beka is on the Obs deck."

As Harper left the machine shop the surroundings began to morph as Evie turned to Beka and Rommie saying "This isn't good. Harper told me about this and how bad it made him feel."

"Tell me about it." Beka replied in an ironic tone. "He goes back to that hell hole of a planet earth, fights a war with the Dragans and loses. There is nothing good about that."

"No Beka, that's not what I'm talking about. " Evie responded. "I'm talking about what happens next, right here on board the Andromeda."

Huh, what are you talking about?" said Beka with a puzzled look on her face.

"Just watch his reactions to what you, Rommie and Dylan say." Evie told them as the surroundings finished changing to those of the corridor just outside the Obs deck. The door opened and Harper and an image of Beka and Rommie exited the obs deck.

"For crying out loud I'm not just talking about some mud ball here we're talking about Earth - Terra - the mother world of all humanity. It's only the most important planet in the whole freakin universe." said Harper emphatically as they exited the observation deck and continued down the corridor.

"Hardly. there are 10,433,00 Tarn-Vedra class planets in the known universe. In the Dragan Empire alone there are 837 slave planets just like her." Rommie's image said in a matter of fact tone.

"Slave planets?"

"ummhmm."

"ummm." Beka's image interrupted cutting off Harpers rebuttal. " I think what Rommie is trying to say in her usual diplomatic fashion is that Earth isn't what she used to be."

"No she's not. Not since the Drago-Kazov Pride conquered her. Destroyed our economy and enslaved our entire population. Yeah that would pretty much make things suck, but we have a chance to fix that now and we have to take it." Harper said with a positive tone as he halted at a junction in the corridor.

Rommie's image went on to say "Harper I don't want you to get your hopes up we're fighting a war we don't have the time or the resources to liberate every slave planet in the Dragon Empire."

"All right. All right what exactly are you trying to tell me here? Huh? That Earth doesn't matter." Harper replied in a hurt tone

At that moment Dylan appeared from around the corner and said "Unfortunately Earth doesn't matter ..." and as he said that there was a crushed look on Harper's face, then he continued to say "... unless we make it matter."

"There did you see how he reacted?" Evie asked Rommie and Beka. While Evie spoke Harper, unnoticed by the three women, turned to face them as their memory images continued on to their destinations. As Harper moved closer their surroundings blurred ever so slightly and the sounds of the ship were muted a little.

"Well he did seem to be taking it worse than I remember." Beka said. "Still he didn't seem to be taking it as hard as you said he did."

"Beka!" Evie exclaimed in a shocked tone. "How did you feel when the Maru had crashed on that ice planet with Nietzschean slavers after you and Tyr suggested luring the slavers to the Maru then blowing it up with the slavers inside."

"How did you know about that?" Beka asked. A slight flush of anger came to her face as the memory of the event filled her mind.

"I read Dylan's mission report about it."

"Well that was completely different." Beka snapped in a fiercely defensive tone. "There is no way in hell that I would ever allow anyone for any reason to destroy my home..." with her last words trailing off as she realized the connection. "But Harper's home had been destroyed."

"And he was talking about taking advantage of an opportunity to fix that." Rommie said finishing the statement for Beka.

"Then you two, one of whom he thinks of as an older sister," Evie pointed to Beka, "and the other" she turned her gaze to Rommie, "who he almost thinks of as a daughter; you both try to convince him that his home isn't worth trying to save." The women had become so used to the constantly changing surroundings that they never noticed that their surroundings had slowly changed to a blur as they spoke with their voices being the only sound. Nor did they notice Harper still standing there almost lost in the blur of the surroundings listening to them.

"I want you to ask yourselves what would you be willing to risk in his position?" Evie asked them pointedly. She paused for a few moments before continuing in a tone of disappointment, "Then ask yourselves how would you feel if your closest friends and adopted family tried to convince you not to try to save your home. Not only that but tell you that your home wasn't worth it and that it didn't matter

Beka and Rommie considered what Evie had just said shamed at how they had unknowingly hurt Harper's feelings. While they were thinking the blur sharpened into the Command Deck; Harper was talking to Dylan.

"You want me to go by myself?" exclaimed Harper loudly drawing the three women's attention.

"No you can take Rommie," responded Dylan calmly.

"I've got a better idea how about you round up all those warships out there, head to Earth and blast the Dragan garrison to pieces?"

"I intend to after I've drawn the Dragon fleet out of position. And as soon as you and Rommie make sure that all their armored units are out in the streets where they're vulnerable."

"Great, start the revolution without me, anything else I can do for you? Transmute the elements, reverse entropy, make you a sandwich?"

"I won't make you go. Your cousin doesn't even know we got his message. Besides I could use you here. But if you want freedom for Earth Harper you're gonna have to fight for it."

Then Dylan walked away leaving Harper with a stunned look on his face. Within moments his expression turned into one of determination as he stood there contemplating the task ahead of him. As he stood the command deck of the Andromeda morphed into the command deck of the Maru with Harper now seated in the pilot's chair and an image of Rommie standing behind him.

"So what's Earth like?" asked Rommie's image.

"What do you care? It has no strategic value remember?"

"Harper, I'm a warship, I always consider the military situation first, it's my nature. But I do care." Rommie winced slightly as she heard her image say those words. Even though what she had said was true, it was a weak and pitiful excuse for the hurt she had caused her friend.

"Well..." Harper replied pausing momentarily as he considered his next words. "It's a place you love, its' uhh, you know, a good feeling until you have to see it all torn down around you."

"And there's nothing you can do to stop it." Rommie's image added.

"We tried. Me and Brendan and uhh our buddy Isaac. You know we thought we could beat the Nietzscheans all by ourselves. We'd steal their weapons, we'd mess with their floater engines, we'd blow shrillers outside their barracks at night."

"Shrillers?" Rommie's image asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"These little whistles I invented. They um they'd extend into the ultrasonic and irritate the hell out of Nietzschean ear canals. We'd blow 'em and they would run like hell"

Rommie's image smiled and said, "Sounds like fun."

"Yeah, it was. It was. Till uhhh, till they ambushed us. An entire Nietzschean platoon outside the barrack waiting for us to show up with our stupid little toys. Brendan spotted them right away. He's good like that. He warned me but Isaac was on the other side of the compound and ummm we could hear his shrilling ... and then it was cut off by gunshots."An Alarm began beeping emphasizing what he had just said. "Yeah ... you're gonna love Earth."

As the command deck began to morph into someplace else Beka noticed that she had an odd feeling like someone was watching her. She resisted the urge to look around for whoever was watching her, having learned long ago from her father that it was safer not to let anyone know that you knew you were being watched. She dismissed the feeling as just being a case of nerves. She quickly focused her attention on her new surroundings, a room somewhere in the city of Boston that was being used as a briefing room. A map of the city had been put up on the wall and a young man who Beka recognized from the hologram Harper had received as his cousin Brendan was standing before it. There were five other people seated in the center of the room. Rommie's image was seated with them.

"The Nietzscheans keep a pretty tight seal on the main living areas here." Brendan explained as he pointed out the areas on the map. "We don't get out much; the Dragons don't come in much. Except when they send in floaters to pick up more slaves. Since the war started they've been taking pretty much everybody they can get their hands on. Little ones, old folks, last week they took Jakes mother over there right off her deathbed.

"Why would they take people who can't work?" asked Harper Brendan answered hesitantly "Well there are rumors... about... resettlement centers"

"Death camps." Rommie's image said bluntly.

"But umm," Brendan said as he moved to put his hand on Harper's shoulder then continued. "We're gonna put a stop to all that, aren't we?" he asked while looking at Harper.

Harper moved closer to the map as if to look at it then replied in an uneasy voice "Yeah. Yeah of course."

Rommie's image stood up and said "Look we'll do what we can but we're just the advance team. The key is to force the Dragons to commit their armored units. Once they're exposed the Andromeda will arrive and pick them off from orbit."

"Yeah a lot of this is gonna have to depend on your resistance fighter friends." Harper paused a moment to emphasize his words. "How many can you mobilize in Boston?"

"Wwell uh, you know.." Brendan hesitated before continuing, "you gotta realize I expected you to show up with a lot more company than just one admittedly very attractive woman."

"How many fighters Brendan?"

"Well, you're looking at 'em Seamus."

"You have five fighters?" Harper exclaimed.

"That I can count on, yeah. Look they've got friends and their friends have friends and a lot of them claim to be in the resistance but how many people can I get in the streets especially before your Dylan arrives? Like I said, five that I know of."

"That you know of. Brendan why did you call us? What did you expect?"

Brendan paused a moment as if unsure of how to answer the question, "What I expected... was hope."

"How am I supposed to give them hope? I know how hard their lives are. That's why I ran away in the first place remember?"

Rommie's image said "Harper if we can't get the local resistance organized in time for Dylan's attack, our surgical strike will turn into a bloody war."

"I don't even know where to start. I mean, what do I say?" Harper asked no one in particular.

Brendan replied "Say whatever it takes."

When Evie saw the look in Harpers eyes and how his shoulders stooped she could see that he felt as if the weight of the world had been placed on his shoulders. "He told me about this but I had no idea that it was like this." Evie commented.

"Well at least he talked to you about this," Beka said. "When I asked him about it he just said he didn't want to talk about it and told me to ask Rommie. When I did ask her I might as well saved myself some time and just read her mission report, which was almost word for word what she told me."

"Beka he made me promise not to tell you about this and how bad it was for him," Rommie responded. While they were talking, Harper turned his eyes from the audience to where the women would have been standing had they been in the room; as his gaze shifted Beka again felt the sensation they she was being watched only this time the sensation was stronger. Immediately after the feeling came over her the scenery finished changed again they were now standing on a low platform along with Harper, Brendan and Rommie's image. It was nighttime and they were outside with a crowd of people gathered around them. They couldn't see exactly how many people were there because the fires in the barrels scattered throughout the area didn't give off enough light.

Harper faced the crowd and said "All around the world, people are ready, ready to rise up." He began slowly and nervously but as he continued speak he spoke more easily as if with more confidence. " In uh, in Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, uh Johannesburg, in thousands -- in uh hundreds of thousands and they're all waiting... waiting for you, waiting for Boston. Because this was where it all began uh the most important revolution in the history of Earth started in Boston the very idea that all people weather born or engineered are equal started in Boston. So now it is Boston's turn again. Time to show your courage, time to storm the barricades, time to fire a shot that will be heard around the world for freedom."

After Harper finished they could hear people in the crowd saying "He's right Let's get the Ubers, nows the time, Freedom for Earth! Remember Earth"

Harper picking up on the mood of the crowd cried out "For freedom!"

The crowd began chanting "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" Evie, Beka and Rommie were tempted to join in chanting. Suddenly there was another change in scenery; one moment they were outside with the chanting crowd and the next they found themselves in a hallway with Brendan, Harper and the image of Rommie walking down it.

They heard Brendan say to Harper, "I gotta hand it to you cousin. You really got 'em believing in themselves for the first time."

"It was a very good speech." The image of Rommie added.

Harper stopped and look at them then said "Yeah Tokyo, Paris, Johannesburg, Singapore, sure. Only one problem. It's all a lie. Come on Dylan."


	15. Chapter 15

_**Meanwhile in the Enlisted Mess**_

"Thank you Trance" replied Dylan over his link. "So do think he'll make it?"

"I don't know. It's still to early to tell."

"That's not what I asked, Trance. What I want to know is what do you think, whats your best guess? You still make guesses don't you?" As Dylan asked those questions he could see from the concerned looks on the faces of the Lancers that he would need to fill them in since they could only hear his side of the conversation.

"Well my best guess is that Harper will pull through okay. We'll know for sure by tomorrow morning if not sooner." Trance said in a hopeful tone.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Dylan asked.

"No there's nothing that you can do, just don't let anyone blow up the ship."

Dylan chuckled when he heard that, then a worried look came over his face, "You are joking, aren't you?"

"Yes I am just joking." Trance replied then Dylan heard her say quietly to herself. "Why does everybody keep asking me that?"

"Carry on and keep me advised of any more changes in his condition Trance." he said. Then he quickly added "Hunt out." making sure that Andromeda knew to cut the connection. Dylan still remembered the incident during his first week as captain of the Andromeda and he was still getting used to using his new sub-dermal com link. He had just finished making a ship wide announcement then he recorded a very personal message to his finance Sara. Unfortunately he had forgotten to sign off and Andromeda broadcast the message ship wide via his com link as he recorded it.

"My chief medical officer just advised me that Mr. Harper's condition has just improved slightly and that it looks like he will pull through okay."

Gunnery Sgt. Samuda cleared his throat then said, "It's good to know that there are still some medical officers who are willing to trust their instincts instead of just relying on what their instruments say."

Dylan paused for a moment before answering "Yes it is. I am sure that any official records you may have on Trance don't tell you just how accurate her guesses are. I've found her guesses to be more accurate than most medical experts' prognosis based on detail analysis of a patients data. So if Trance guesses that Harper will pull through ok then he probably will." Dylan smiled smugly as he watched the trio consider what he just said. "So if you've nothing more for me I've other duties to attend to."

"Yes there is Captain Hunt," Gunnery Sgt. Samuda said holding out a flexi for Dylan as he continued. "We've compiled a list of randomly selected crewmen from all departments to be interviewed so we can evaluate the moral and help identify any problem areas in your command. If you approve we'd like to begin the interviews at 0600 hours starting with Sgt. Major Beltran and Senior Spacer Snowden."

Dylan quickly scanned the list on the flexi then replied "This looks fine to me. I'll have Andromeda assign offices and a conference room for your use as well as quarters for the duration of your stay on board."

_**Harper's Nightmare**_

As the surroundings morphed into a new configuration Beka's feeling that they were being watched intensified. She decided that she had to share this with Evie and Rommie. She spoke very quietly so that only they could hear it "What ever you do don't look around or act as if I said anything, ok." Beka paused for a few moments while the two androids continued to talk about the implications of what they had just seen. Beka knew they had understood even though they had continued talking since their eyes were focused on her and not on each other. She continued in the same hushed tones "I've the feeling that we're being watched and it can only be Harper who's doing it. I think we ought to continue as if we aren't aware of that."

When the three ladies focused their attention back on their surroundings they saw Harper and an image of Rommie paying close attention to a field comm unit. They were monitoring the feed from the numerous surveillance cameras that had been set up earlier. Rommie's image said in an matter of fact tone " The Dragon slave caravan is on its way into the ghetto."

"Damn!" Harper exclaimed. " There are a lot more of them than we expected. They must be reinforcing their positions because of the war."

Rommie's image replied "No plan of battle ever survives the first engagement with the enemy."

"I remember that Dylan said the same thing to Fleet Admiral Cuatemoc." Beka commented.

"That principle is stressed at the Officer Training Corps so all the cadets are well aware of it just as all combat veterans are." Rommie added.

Harper went on to say "What if Ozzie was right, Rommie? What if the people in the streets won't rise up and join us? "

Rommie's image shrugged. "Then we lose," she said. "But if we do nothing, we still lose. And we may never have an opportunity like this again."

Brendan's voice came from the comm unit "Yo, cousin the transports are in position, what's the word?"

"Uhh... the word is... ummm...attack." As Harper gave the command to attack it echoed ominously for a few seconds before fading away.

As they heard the echoing of the command to attack Rommie, Beka and Evie looked each other in the eye. Rommie spoke in a hushed surprised tone "I never realized how much it had affected him to give that command, did you?." Beka's grim look as she nodded knowingly needed no words and the tears falling from Evie's eyes spoke volumes.

"He's sending his fellow Bostonians," Evie said sadly pausing a moment as she considered her word, " no his cousins to fight and to die. He told me that it was one of the hardest things he had ever done in his life."

They turned their attention back to Harper and the image of Rommie and watched the battle's progress on the comm unit. As things progressed from bad to worse Harper said with dread "More Dragons are moving to intercept. They're outnumbered if Dylan doesn't get here soon we're all dead."

The scene almost instantaneously shifted to the image of Rommie examining an injured Brendan as she said "Multiple fractures, internal bleeding and yeah, a concussion."

"Just do something about it will ya?" Harper asked impatiently.

Brendan said weakly, "You can tell all that just by looking at me?"

"Yeah, Rommie's uh, full of surprises." Harper said cheerfully with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Lucky for you. While you were off on your little adventure I hacked into the Dragon's communication grid and broadcast news of the revolt. The people of Earth are rising up." Rommie's image said as she treated Brendan's wounds and injected some medical nano-bots to help him heal faster.

"Paris? Tokyo?" Harper asked hopefully.

"Even Johannesburg." Rommie added.

Brendan: coughed weakly then said "And here I thought you were lying about Johannesburg."

"I started lying the minute I opened my mouth." Harper commented wryly then asked, "What about the armored divisions?"

"Mobilizing worldwide. They should be fully exposed when Dylan arrives in... Five hours and twenty-one minutes." Rommie answered.

"Hey thanks, cousin." said Brendan as he smiled at Harper.

Harper nodded nervously as the surrounding began to rapidly change. When the change was completed Brendan was pacing anxiously as Harper walked over to where Rommie's image was monitoring the comm unit.

"Where's Dylan?" Harper asked anxiously then added, "The Dragon armored units are killing us."

"He should be here soon." the image replied calmly.

"That's what you said an hour ago, he's 90 minutes late." Brendan added impatiently.

"Slipstream isn't always that precise, he could have been delayed" Rommie explained.

"Delayed where?" Harper asked. "If he were in the system he would have contacted us by now."

"Not if he's maintaining communications silence" Rommie's image paused suddenly for a couple moments then said, "Hang on a second I'm getting a signal"

"A signal?" Harper asked hopefully

"From a slip fighter." Rommie replied

"A slip fighter?" Harper said in a surprised tone.

"It's Tyr." the image of Rommie said.

As their surroundings began to change once more Evie could almost feel the dread and desperation radiating from Harper as she watched him fade as well. "Dylan didn't come and his hopes were shattered." Evie commented somberly.

"I wanted to come but Dylan said we had to regroup the fleet or would lose the fleet and the war." Beka explained.

"Beka you know that Dylan had to stay and regroup otherwise the Dragan's would have decimated our fleet." Rommie explained but even as she said that she knew just how lame it sounded even to herself. She knew that it was merely an excuse and a weak one at that. Rommie knew that what Dylan had said not entirely correct. She knew that Dylan knew just as well as she did that the rest of the fleet would've regrouped at the prearranged rally point on their own and waited for the Andromeda to return.

"I know," Beka agreed, "but that doesn't make me feel any better about letting Harper down like that."

When things finished morphing Harper was facing Tyr at the bottom of a stairway leading up to the surface. Harper said to Tyr "What do you mean he's not coming?"

"He had to choose - save his fleet and his alliance or sacrifice them both to liberate a single slave world." Tyr stated.

"But Dylan always keeps his promises." "Dylan made a great many promises and he only has one ship. Now try and get the people out of the streets. There'll be another time."

"Another time?" Harper said in an exasperated tone. "I'm just supposed to stop a revolution? There are people bleeding and dying in the streets because they actually think they may have a chance to win for a change. How am I supposed to tell them they're wrong?"

_**Meanwhile in Dylan's office**_

As Dylan entered he said "Andromeda I don't want to be disturbed unless it is a dire emergency or an update on Harpers condition." Dylan unfastened his uniform jacket as he headed towards his desk pausing by the coat rack long enough to hang the jacket on it.

A miniature hologram of Andromeda appeared on his desk as he sat down and asked "Do you've any further orders for me Captain?"

"No." he started to reply but quickly added "Wait yes I do. I want you to play Adm. Tanaka's message again. I need to make sure about something I saw in it earlier and while it's playing I also want you to do a complete analysis of it." As he finished speaking Dylan picked up a blank flexi and a stylus then began to take notes as he watched Tanaka's message.

After reviewing the message twice Dylan scanned his notes and then read it aloud "The three musketeers are trusty friends and the courier pigeon has the score." He scoffed loudly as he tossed the flexi onto the desk. "That was a wild goose chase, I sure hope your analysis comes up with something better Andromeda." Dylan stretched and yawned as he thought about the confusing message he got from the blink code in Tanaka's message. "Andromeda, do you've any background information on 'Three Musketeers'?"

A moment the miniature hologram of Andromeda reappeared on his desk and answered, "Yes there is one in ancient earth literature. It is a fictional story by Alexandre Dumas which is set in what was called France. It is about some soldiers in the army who are friends and were instrumental in foiling a plot against their queen Anne. Although the plot against the queen seemed to come from an enemy of France it was actually the cardinal Richelieu, who was the real power behind the king Louis XIII, that was behind the plot."

"Thank you Andromeda," Dylan said as he got up and started to get ready for bed. As soon he got his shirt off the comm unit chimed and Trance appeared on the view screen and said urgently "Dylan I think you better come to med deck." Before Dylan could reply Trance had broken the connection. As Dylan started to put his shirt back on he muttered to himself "It never fails to happen."


	16. Chapter 16

_**Med Deck**_

As Dylan walked into med deck he saw 3 members of the engineering staff and Lancer McGrady all being treated for minor injuries. "What happened to you?" asked directing his question to all of them. They all exchanged nervous glances with each other but remained silent.

After about 30 seconds one of the engineers said "We just had a bit of a disagreement, sir."

"A disagreement?" Dylan said in a tone that left no doubt that he was not satisfied with that explanation "Would you care to elaborate on that."

"Well it started out as a little disagreement but we got a little carried away I guess." The engineer added sheepishly while trying to avoid looking Dylan in the eye as he said that.

Normally Dylan would have let it go at that if he had bothered to notice it at all but with the inspection looming over his head he couldn't ignore it. So he just crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner and waited for them to continue.

When the engineer saw that he knew that Dylan wasn't going to be satisfied with anything less than the whole story.  
**_  
Earlier in the Enlisted Mess  
_**

Lancer First Class Colleen McGrady had been quietly eating her dinner, if you could call pushing the food around the plate eating, when she noticed that Captain Hunt get up and head out of the mess hall. He had been seated with the three that must have been on the courier ship that had arrived earlier when she had sat down to eat. Even though she was hungry she had no appetite because she was still upset about injuring Harper. After playing with her food for a few while longer she decided to give up on eating for now to go see how Harper was doing instead.

She got up and started to take her tray back to the kitchen and as was passing the table where Samuda, Haulder & Dow sat she met Tanjoel Vidar, Taltos Manneke & Chi Condorben who were all junior engineering technicians. Before she could ask to get by Tanjoel said "Say aren't you the lancer who took down the chief?"

She could tell that they had all had some beer but weren't noticeably drunk yet. She wondered for a moment were this would lead to before answering "Yes, now would you please let me by?"

"Hold on there just a minute." Tanjoel replies as Taltos blocked her way by even more. "You're not going anywhere until you explained why you tried to kill Mr. Harper."

"I most definitely wasn't trying to kill Mr. Harper in fact I wasn't trying to hurt him at all.' McGrady responded defiantly. " I was just doing as I was ordered to. I was ordered to incapacitate him using non-lethal force to stop him from hurting anyone else or doing any more damage. It was an accident that he got hurt like he did and I feel terrible about it."

"Oh it was an accident you say," Tanjoel said while moving forward as if to push his way past her. "Just like this." he added in a barely audible growl as he quickly backhanded her.

As the blow landed McGrady spun in the direction of the blow softening the impact of the blow. She continued her spin sweeping his lead foot out from under him putting him off balance. As she completed spinning full circle she hit him in the solar plexus with her left elbow as he was falling forward knocking him down and leaving him gasping for air. As she settled into a fighting stance Taltos threw a roundhouse punch at her as both he and Chi charged at her. McGrady easily side stepped the punch as she used the now empty tray in her hands to deflect it away putting him off balance for the moment. Without any hesitation she quickly took advantage the situation and delivered a spinning back kick into Chi's groin dropping him to the deck. Then as Taltos was just recovering his balance McGrady swept both his feet from under him.

As she looked around to see if there were any more attackers she realized that the fight had only lasted a few second. As she looked around her hoping that there were no senior NCO's in the area she noticed that Sgt Maj. Beltran was quickly approaching. As he came close the Sgt. Maj. said loudly "What in the name of the Vedran empress is going on here?"

McGrady quickly came to attention as she saluted and said "Nothing Sgt. Maj. . These men slipped and I was just trying to help them up."

The Sgt. Maj. eyed the three men on the deck and gave a little snort as if he was suppressing a laugh as he returned the salute. "Well if that's all then help them up and escort them to med deck so they can be checked out. They might have hurt themselves as they fell." he paused a moment as he looked closely at McGrady then continued, "While you're there have them look at you too. It looks like you're getting a bit of a rash on your cheek."

"Yes Sgt. Maj. I'll do that immediately." replied McGrady as she sighed with relief inside.

"Well get busy." said Sgt. Maj. Beltran just before he turned to return to his table to finish his dinner.

As McGrady turned to help Tanjoel up she saw where her plate of food had gone. She also heard the red haired Lancer at the table say "Well Samuda it looks like you got that fourth helping of SOS any way."

**_Med Deck_**

As they finished relating the events to Dylan knew that although he would normally overlook something like this he couldn't do it this time. Especially not with the inspection going on. Thinking 'Why the hell did this have to happen now?' After a few moments thought Dylan said "Well starting tomorrow morning you four are on double duty for the next two weeks." then he turned to see where Trance was.

Trance had been standing near Harper monitoring his status when Dylan had entered med deck. Trance had noticed him almost immediately and had watched while he talked to McGrady and the three technicians from the engineering department. When he had finished talking to them she motioned for him to join her in her office. Once they were seated at Trance's desk Dylan asked "Ok Trance what is it you wanted to tell me?"

"First of all I wanted to tell you that Harper's condition is is showing a dramatic improvement but he's not out of the woods yet." After she said that Trance paused as if she had more to say but didn't quite know how to say it.

"But..." Dylan added after noticing Trance's hesitation.

"I don't know quite how to explain this so I want you to take a look at this while I try to explain." she said while handing a flexi for Dylan to look at. "This is an analysis of the residual energy patterns in Harper's neurological system both Andromeda and myself had noticed after his usage oft the Transport device." Trance pause long enough to hand Dylan another flexi then continued saying "And this is the energy pattern of the transport device when in operation."

After comparing the two flexies Dylan said "They're identical but you would expect that right."

"Thats true, but what bothered me about that was it seemed familiar to me. It was if I had seen that energy pattern before but I couldn't remember where or when. So I asked Andromeda to do some digging and this is what she found." handing Dylan one more flexi as she said that.. "That is an analysis of the energy pattern of the "Jaws of Life" made to reopen dimensional tunnel that we encountered almost a year ago. It's not an exact match but they are quite similar." She handed him one more flexi and continued saying,"And this is from the device Harper invented to get us home from the universe where we encountered the Dr. Jackson, General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, Teal'c and the rest of the Stargate command."

Dylan looked at the last flexi and compared it to the others. "This is a close match as well." he commented after he finished comparing them.

She handed him the last flexi she had in her hand "This is an analysis of the transport device on the Asgard ship was here a few months ago." After studying the last one Dylan said "This one is almost identical."

Trance started to say something when an alarm sounded.

**_  
Meanwhile in Harpers Nightmare_**  
As their surroundings were changing Evie said to Rommie & Beka "Earlier you two said that no battle plans survives the first engagement with the enemy and that Dylan was well aware of this principle. So that means when he made his promise to help Harper with the revolution, Dylan knew there was a good chance he wouldn't be able to keep his promise."

"Yep," Beka replied with a hint of anger in her voice. "That's the way it looks too me."

Before nodding her head in agreement Rommie considered telling them everything she knew about that particular situation but decided against it. Even though they deserved to know about it they didn't really need to know it and that it really wasn't her place to tell them, it was Dylan's responsibility.

Shortly after that they found themselves standing on the observation deck with Harper standing in front of the observation port. He had in his hands a tin whistle turning it over in his hands as he stared out the port. He appeared to be lost in thought.

They saw Dylan enter the Obs deck and head towards Harper saying, "Mr. Harper"

Harper looked towards Dylan for a couple moments then looked back out the observation port as he said "I could use a little privacy right now if you don't mind"

Harper looked towards Dylan for a couple moments then looked back out the observation port as he said "I could use a little privacy right now if you don't mind"

Dylan stepped a little closer as he while saying "I understand but I thought you'd want to see this." while holding out a flexi for him to take. "It's a transmission from Earth."

Harper looked at Dylan in a questioning manner as he took the offered flexi.

"Copies are popping up all over Dragon space" Dylan added

Harper activated the flexi and they could hear Brendan's voice saying "The Dragons call us Kludges; they call us mutts and mules as if we're the genetic mistake because we're only human. Well now we've shown them what we Humans can do. We Kludges, we mutts, we mules and we're going to keep showing them, today, tomorrow and every day until Earth is free. For today is like no other day, today we are cousins all. Today we reclaim Earth for humanity. This is Bunker Hill signing off"

"So you're telling me it was worth it? Even if my cousin's dead?" Harper asked.

"Either way he won... so did you" Dylan replied then he turned and left the obs deck leaving Harper to his thoughts.

As Dylan was leaving Rommie exclaimed "That's what he engaged privacy mode for!" in a loud angry voice startling both Evie and Beka

"What do you mean by that, Rommie?"asked Beka.

As Beka spoke Evie had been watching Harper and noticed that he was watching them out of the corner of his eyes. "Yes , please tell us because we'd all like to know" Evie said emphasizing the word all slightly.

Both Rommie and Beka caught Evie's meaning and Rommie went on to explain. "While we were on our way back to the Andromeda Harper seemed depressed and I thought it was because of Brendan. Harper told me that it wasn't Brendan's death and the revolt being crushed by the Dragan's that bothered him so much but that it was Dylan's not keeping his promise that upset him the most. You see Harper knew that there was a chance that the revolt wouldn't succeed even if Dylan and the Andromeda had been there when planned."

"I see, " Evie commented, "If Dylan had been there and they lost it wouldn't have been as bad because he would have known that he had done all he could."

"And there wouldn't have been any broken promises" Beka added.

"After we got back to the Andromeda, I/we had a talk with Dylan about that broken promise. I explained to him how hard Harper was taking it and suggested if he would have a few words with Harper it might help him feel a little better."

"In other words apologize for making a promise that he knew he probably wouldn't be able to keep when he made it." Beka said in an icy tone that did not bode well for Dylan.

Rommie nodded her head then said "I thought that was why he had engaged the privacy mode."

"Wait a minute here." Harper exclaimed loudly as he turned and walked towards the women. "You mean to tell me that Dylan knew that he wouldn't be able keep his promise when he made it."

"In other words apologize for making a promise that he knew he probably wouldn't be able to keep when he made it." Beka said in an icy tone that did not bode well for Dylan.

Rommie nodded her head then said "I thought that was why he had engaged the privacy mode."

"Wait a minute here." Harper exclaimed loudly as he turned and walked towards the women. "You mean to tell me that Dylan knew that he wouldn't be able keep his promise when he made it."


	17. Chapter 17

_**Med Deck**_

Trance and Dylan both rushed over to where the readouts of the readouts of the equipment monitoring Harper, Beka, Rommie and Evie's conditions were being displayed. While Trance was analyzing the readouts Dylan asked "Andromeda what's happening?"

Andromeda's image appeared on the view screen of the com unit nearest Dylan and replied "I don't know but I've completely lost contact with Rommie."

"What do you mean you've lost contact?" he said in frustration.

"I am no longer receiving progress reports from Rommie. Contact was cut off while she was sending me a report that they were making progress on contacting Harpers consciousness."

Dylan stared for a few moments in surprise then turned to Trance but before he could say anything Trance said, "I can't do anything to help them. I think they're trapped within Harpers mind."

"What do you mean trapped?" Dylan asked in frustration as his fears for the safety of his friends raced through his mind. "That shouldn't be possible with the standard VR safety protocols."

"I mean just that. They can be and are trapped because they aren't using the standard safety protocols. It appears that they're trapped just like Harper's mind is and none of them can leave until he's cured." Trance replied looking past Dylan at the ashen face of Colleen McGrady who had not yet left the med deck.

"So they're stuck and can't come out until he's comes out of it right?" Dylan asked hopefully apparently unaware of Lancer McGrady standing behind him or the effect of his words on her.

"No Dylan, it's worse than that." Trance said unable to completely keep her fear from showing in her voice and on her face. "If Harper dies while Beka, Evie & Rommie are in his mind they'll die too."

Trance watched the reactions of both Dylan and Lancer McGrady to what she had just said. Dylan showed very little reaction one way or the other, which indicated to Trance that he seemed to take the bad news as well as could be expected. Considering his training and the amount of experience this was not an unexpected reaction. Lancer McGrady's face on the other hand showed a mixture of shock and guilt when she heard the announcement. Despite her combat skills, McGrady had seen very little actual combat and Trance had expected that this might be the young Lancer's reaction considering her compassionate nature and the higher than normal degree of empathy the young woman had displayed since joining the Lancers aboard the ship. Trance knew that with time and experience McGrady would learn how to handle these things better but for the moment she needed some support. "Excuse me Dylan I have something that I need to take care of." Trance said as she walked over to comfort the distraught Lancer.

_**Harper's Nightmare**_

The outburst Harper directed at the ladies caused them to stare at him in surprise. He began to walk towards them saying as he approached "Are you sure about that cause if that's true my fist and his face is gonna have a serious discussion."

Evie was surprised at the sheer anger in Harper's voice and eyes as he spoke. While Beka had only seen him this angry once before. The Maru had just finished making a delivery at Winnipeg Drift and her crew was celebrating at one of the local watering holes when they say a Nietzschean beating his young teenage human slave girl nearly to death because she had stumbled and almost spilled his drink on him If Vexpeg hadn't been there to hold him back Harper would have attacked him the Nietzschean right then. The following day after the Maru had lifted off and Beka was idling away the transit time reading the news they had downloaded before liftoff she found a story about the discovery of a dead Nietzschean There had been a photo of the victim along with the article and it had been the same Nietzschean they had seen the previous day. Although Beka had her suspicions she had never asked Harper about it.

Rommie said nothing as she contacted her sister/self to give her a brief status report. As this was happening the scenery chanced to the outskirts of the Boston ghettos again. They could see what appeared to be a funeral pyre and a group of people approaching. When Harper noticed their surroundings he suddenly went quiet and turned deathly pale. Then he looked back at them and said barely loud enough to hear "That's impossible, you guys can't be here. No way can you be here."

"Why do you say that" asked Evie.

"Cause this is when we cremated the bodies of my cousins Declan and Siobhan to keep the magog larvae from hatching. But that happened almost 9 years before I left earth. How the hell can you guys be here?"

"What do you think is happening to you Harper?" Evie asked him.

"I must be dreaming because this happened a long time ago when I was just a kid." he replied.

"Well in a way you are dreaming but we're," Evie said as she motioned to Beka and Rommie, "not really part of the dream." Harper appeared to be somewhat perplexed at her explanation so she quickly continued with her explanation of the situation. "Do you remember earlier when you were shooting at something on the Andromeda?"

"Yeah there were some Magog and Replicators appearing and disappearing all over the ship like marshal Yeager and those beings from the inter dimensional tunnel did. They were using some kind of stealth technology but I could see them when nobody else could."

"No, you weren't seeing them, not really. There is something, maybe it was the transporter device that you made, that was causing your dreams, no your nightmares, to intrude upon your conscious mind causing you to hallucinate. So even though you saw them they weren't really there and you were shooting at nothing. Because you were a danger to the ship, the rest of the crew and yourself Dylan ordered ships security teams to capture and restrain you by non lethal means. But something went wrong and you were almost killed. A force lance stun charge was conducted through your data port. Right now you are actually laying on an exam table in med deck in a comatose state with your mind trapped in an endless nightmare fueled by your worst memories."

As Evie was talking to him she observed his reactions which had at first showed a shocked surprise bordering on disbelief that changed to shame when she spoke of his being a danger to the Andromeda and his shipmates When she mentioned the stun charge going through his data port he reached up and touched the data port. After she had finished he gave her a nervous smile then said "Good thing I had those overload shunts installed." He fidgeted a little bit before asking "That explains what happened and why but how did you get here?"

In response to his question Evie reached out with her left hand and tapped his data port lightly with her forefinger.

"I see, you, Beka and Rommie went into the Andromeda's VR matrix then Rommie brought you guys in through my data port." smiling as said that. A few seconds later his smile was replaced with a look of concern. "You know that's kinda risky doing that."

"I know but we had to do something to help you. I love you," Evie caressed his face as she said that, "we all love you. We couldn't just sit by and watch you suffer while waiting to see if you lived or died when there was something we could do to help."

As Evie explained the situation to Harper Beka noticed that Rommie had a puzzled look on her face. Before Beka could ask her anything the look changed to one of worry. "What's wrong Rommie?" Beka asked.

"I was sending a status report to my ship self when the link was broken."Rommie replied

"What do you mean the link was broken? Shouldn't we return to our own bodies if that happens?"

"Normally because of the standard safeguards used in normal VR procedures yes that's true but" Rommie began to explain until interrupted.

"We aren't using normal VR procedures, are we?" Beka finished for her. Rommie confirmed it by solemnly nodding her head.

Beka started towards where Evie and Harper were talking "Come on let's tell them the bad news"

As they drew closer they saw Harper take Evie's hand in his and they heard him say "If you came in through the VR matrix how come you can touch me and I can hold your hand? You should be like a hologram to me where I can only see an hear you."

"I can explain why." Rommie announced. "I was sending my ship self a report of our progress when the link was severed and since we weren't using the normal VR safety protocols we didn't got back to our bodies like we normally would in that situation. That's not all. When the link was broken we went into the fully interactive mode."

After hearing that both Evie and Harper had a grim look on their faces while Beka looked puzzled and confused by it. "What do you mean by fully interactive mode?" she asked.

"It's like when Harper uses his data port to enter my VR matrix to fix me or my ship self. He goes into the fully interactive mode so he can make repairs to my systems and programming from within the VR matrix." Rommie explained and then quickly added, "On the other hand he can also be affected by what I/we do as well."

"Wait you're telling me that not only can we now affect things in here but we can be hurt as well." Beka exclaimed.

"Yes and not only that we can't leave until Harper is cured." Rommie responded.

"And if he doesn't get cured?" Beka asked.

"We share his fate."

"Ok now that we've got that settled ladies get your weapons ready cause I've had this nightmare before and it's gonna get really ugly soon." Harper cautioned them. While pointing at the funeral procession with a gauss pistol that seemed to appear in his hand out of thin air. They could see that two bodies were being placed on the pyre and that a torch was being readied to light the pyre on fire.


	18. Chapter 18

_**The Nightmare Continues**_

"What do you mean it's gonna get really ugly?" Beka asked impatiently as she began to draw her gauss pistol from it's holster. "Just what's going to happen?"

"Come on Beka we have two bodies that are infested with Magog larvae, you know how I feel about Magog and you know about my own personal experience of being infested." Harper said in a slightly condescending tone. "It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Heck I bet even Captain Terrific could figure it out"

"Oh crap that's what I was afraid you meant."

As they spoke the bodies of Harper's cousin's began to thrash about as if something was about to erupt from them. . Within moments the first baby magog burst forth followed almost immediately by at least 25 more of the voracious babies. For a moment everyone stood in shocked surprise by their sudden appearance. During those moments while the onlookers stood staring in shocked surprise the newly hatched magog launched themselves at the onlookers. As they raced toward the crowd of mourners they impossibly began to grow from babies into fully mature adult magog.

After an instants hesitation Harper lunged forward firing his gauss pistol at the attacking magog. Beka, Evie and Rommie were right behind him opening fire as well. The smell of burnt fur soon filled the air. As they continued fighting it became apparent that no matter how many magog they killed there was always more magog to kill as if there was an endless supply of them. "Geez, this is like playing a freaking game of Space Invaders." Harper commented eliciting a puzzled expressions from all three of the women.

As they fought desperately against the voracious hoard of magog they could see that some the magog had fallen upon the crowd of mourners and were in the process of infesting them with their larvae. When Evie saw this she truly realized for the first time just what Harper had witnessed as a child when he watched his cousins being infested. She understood his hatred and fear of the hirsute horrors that were the magog on a whole new level. As she fought she watched Harper fighting the monsters of his nightmares with a reckless abandon that bordered on insanity.

Beka saw that Evie was staying as close to Harper as she could as he advanced on a small cluster of magog. As the fighting around Beka slacked off a moment she noticed that their surroundings were now an amalgamation of Boston on earth, the tunnels of the Magog worldship and the corridors of the Andromeda. This struck Beka as something that was significant somehow but before she could think about it any further the fighting picked up once more..

As Rommie was in the process of killing the last of the magog she and Beka were fighting she saw Harper advancing on a small cluster of magog directly in front of him and Evie firing his gauss pistol frantically at them. She saw 3 of them go down but saw there was no way he could get the other 2 before they would reach him. Before Rommie could switch her aim Evie placed herself between Harper and the closest magog firing as fast as she could pull the trigger of her weapon. As the magog went down one of them clawed Evie savagely on her chest causing her to cry out in pain. Screaming in rage Harper shot the magog that had savaged his lover while at the same time Beka and Rommie also fired at the creature the impact of the shots from their weapons literally threw it back through the air several feet before it landed on the ground.

During the ensuing lull in the fighting Harper and Rommie went to Evie's side to see how she was. As Harper hugged Evie to his chest sobbing, Rommie could see that Evie's injuries were only superficial and that she would be ok.

As Beka watched the drama unfolding she thought about all the horrifying things they had seen from Harper's past and said to herself "No wonder you have so many nightmares Harper. With a past like this who wouldn't." As soon as she uttered the words she knew what had to be done to snap Harper out of this nightmare world fueled by his most terrible memories and fears.

With her new knowledge she knelt down in front of Harper. "Harper I know how to end this."

Harper lifted his gaze from Evie to her with a questioning look on his face but said nothing then turned his gaze back towards Evie.

"Harper," Beka said sternly, "I know how to end this nightmare."

Harper looked at her once again and said one word, "How?"

"All of this is," Beka motion at everything around them as she spoke, "the result of you focusing on your past. You have to just let it go."

Harper looked at her with a puzzled look before replying "I can't, I don't know how."

"Yes you can, yes you can. You just need to focus on your future and all of this will end."

"How do I do that?" he asked.

"It's simple, just embrace your future instead." Rommie said.

"What, " Harper exclaimed, "How the heck can I do that?"

Rommie merely pointed at Evie in reply.

When he looked back down at Evie he saw that Evie's was looking up at him with a smile on her face. Before he could say or do anything else Evie said "I love you and want to spend the rest my life with you." then kissed him.

Harper looked at her in surprise as he started to say "But you were."

Evie cut him off saying "It's only a scratch. Now as much as I love being held by you could we get up off the ground."

With Evie's words Harper realized that he was head over heals in love with her as well. As he realized this the magog in the distance disappeared along with Boston and worldship scenery. As Harper helped Evie up Beka moved closer to Rommie who was watching the two lovers with a satisfied smile on her lips.

Rommie expression abruptly changed looking as if she was listening to something only she could hear then announced cheerfully "I have re-established contact with my shipself again."

"Great so I guess everything is back to normal and we can leave if we want to, right." Beka said hopefully.

Rommie nodded her head in agreement in response to Beka while watching Harper who had embraced Evie and began kissing her. As Beka saw him doing that she smiled and said to Rommie "Problem solved."

As Beka and Rommie watched Harper and Evie's clothing began to shimmer and fade. Beka cleared her throat nervously and turned to Rommie saying "Maybe we should leave and let the two lovebirds have some time alone."

"Of course." Rommie replied and started the process of leaving. As they were starting to leave Rommie saw Evie look at them over Harpers shoulder and wave her hand at them as if she were shooing them away.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Back in Med Deck**_

Deciding that he couldn't be of any use to Harper and the others, Dylan had gone into Trance's office with the intention of figuring out precisely what Tanaka's coded message meant. Trance went to talk with Lancer McGrady who had stayed in the waiting area. Even Tyr joined them in the waiting area.

After a while Trance returned to check on her patients. As she was checking on them Andromeda announced to her "I have re-established contact with Rommie." At the same time several of the red lights on the VR monitoring equipment turned green once more indicating their return to normal VR operations.

After double checking the readouts Trance went to tell Dylan the news. As she neared the office entrance she heard Dylan say "Are you sure about that Andromeda?"

"Yes I'm positive captain."

"Then notify the officer of the watch to make best speed to Valhalla drift." Dylan said in a decisive tone.

Trance cleared her throat to get his attention before saying "Dylan we've made contact with Rommie, Beka and Evie again."

Dylan looked up from the display on Trance's desk at Trance with a sort of distracted stare. "Is everything Ok?' he asked.

""Better than OK Dylan," enthused Trance. "Harper appears to be making a full recovery and Rommie says she and the others will be leaving the VR matrix very shortly our time."

"Thats good to hear," replied Dylan turning back to look at the display on Trance's desk. "Keep me posted. You're dismissed."

Trance left the office seething at Dylan's seeming indifference to the welfare of his crew members and at being dismissed from her own office. Seconds later a miniature hologram of Andromeda's persona appeared on the desk and said "That wasn't very nice of you."

Dylan looked at her and said "huh, what did you say?"

"I said that it wasn't very nice of you to dismiss Trance like that when you had asked her specifically to keep you posted of any changes in Harpers condition." said Logic in a tone of voice that let Dylan know that she was not too happy with him at the moment.

Dylan replied saying "I'll talk to them later. Harper won't be going anywhere for a bit and this is important."

As Trance exited the office she saw Beka removing the VR inter face and that Rommie was already rising from her seat. "So how did it go?" Trance asked and when she noticed that Evie had not returned she added "Is Evie ok?"

"I'm going to log a full report of the events." Rommie said in a matter of fact tone stressing the words full report and making it clear that it was up to Beka to answer Trance's questions.

"Everything is fine Trance, Harper has snapped out of his nightmares and Evie's fine." Beka responded then went on to give Trance a brief explanation of what had happened while in Harper's mind. Beka hesitated at the end of the story then after giving Rommie a quick glance she went on to say "We decided to give them some time alone together."

After watching Trance's reactions Beka noticed that something seemed to be bothering her. After a short period of indecision about whether or not to ask Trance what was wrong Beka's curiosity got the better of her ans she asked "Trance what's wrong?"

Trance merely shook her in reply

"Come on Trance I can tell that some thing's bothering you." Beka watched Trance as she appeared to debate within herself whether or not to answer Beka question. "Trance," urged Beka, "please I'm your friend and I want to help."

Trance looked at Beka for a few more moments before saying "It's Dylan, it seems like he doesn't really care about how Harper is doing anymore." Trance went on to explain what had happened in her office just before Beka and Rommie had returned from the VR matrix.

Before anyone could respond to what Trance had just said an alarm sounded from the console monitoring Harper and Evie's condition. Tranced rushed over to the console to check it. After a few seconds of observing the readings Trance said "Andromeda please inform Dylan that Evie is returning from the VR matrix and Harper is starting to come out of the coma." Shortly after that Dylan emerged from Trance's office.

Almost immediately after Evie disengaged from the VR Matrix Trance announced, "He's regaining consciousness."

They all moved closer as Harper opened his eyes blinking rapidly as they focused. When he saw them crowded around him watching expectantly he said "Gee I didn't know you guys cared," in a mock tone of surprise. He quickly sat up and got off the examination before any one could say anything to him about it.

"Careful there Mr. Harper," Dylan cautioned him, "we don't want you rushing things. We're all glad to see you recover as quickly as you did." Dylan was smiling as he spoke thinking that there was now one less crisis to deal with. That was until he saw the flash of white hot anger in Harper's eyes just before the world exploded and everything went black.


	20. Chapter 20

It was absolutely quiet as Dylan fell to the deck so the dull thud of his body hitting the deck sounded even louder than it actually was. Lancer McGrady watched dumbstruck as Beka and Evie rushed to Harper's side asking if he had hurt his hand while Rommie looked down at the unconscious form of the captain with what appeared to be a look of approval on her face.

The sound of Tyr saying, "I must say that that was a well executed punch." as he approached to take a closer look at Dylan lying on the floor. "But I would advise you that it would be best if you we're elsewhere when he comes to and I doubt that he will be out for very long." broke the spell and upon hearing those words everyone started to leave med deck. Harper, Evie, Beka and Rommie all left quickly.

As they left Evie was saying "Come on lets get you to your quarters so you can get some rest." Immediately after they had left and as the shock of the events started to wear off Lancer McGrady noticed that both the hologram and the view screen image of Andromeda had the same look of approval on their faces that had been on Rommie's face. Upon seeing that she decided that she wanted to be anywhere except in med deck when that captain regained consciousness.

Trance looked Dylan lying on the floor then asked "Tyr, would you help get him on the examination table."

As Trance moved into position to help lift Dylan to the exam table Tyr waved her off and did it himself. While he did that Trance said aloud "I wonder why Harper did that?"

Andromeda's hologram appeared next to Trance and said "I believe I can explain why." then went on to explain the reason why.

Both Trance and Tyr listened to what Logic had to say as they waited for Dylan to come to. When Logic had finished both thought about they had been told. Then Tyr said in a dry tone "It appears that some of our intrepid captain's," pausing a few moments as if considering his words before continuing, "indiscretions have caught up with him."

"That is one way of putting putting it." Trance commented but before she could say anything else Dylan started to regain consciousness. She quickly started scanning him for any signs of injury. As he started to sit up she stopped him saying, "Wait I want you to answer some questions first." She held up three fingers and asked "How many finger's am I holding up?"

"Three." Dylan answered very quickly.

"Good, now where are we?"

"We're in Med Deck." Dylan responded with no hesitation.

"Ok what was the last thing you remember happening?"

Dylan touched rubbed his jaw with his right hand and said "Harper punched me for some unknown reason.'

"Excellent," Trance said with a hint of a smile in her voice. "Now what is your High Guard serial number?

After only a moments thought Dylan replied "HE5095C21922."

After that Trance held out one finger on each hand and said "Now I want you to squeeze both of my fingers at the same time as hard as you can."

Dylan looked a little puzzled at her request but complied with it.

"Good," Trance said in a tone of approval. "According to all the readings and your responses you seem to be fine." Immediately after saying that she slapped his face then turned and quickly walked out of med deck.

Dylan sat up and looked at Tyr with a surprised and somewhat puzzled look on his face rubbing his cheek. After a few moments he asked Tyr "What was that all about?"

"That Captain," Tyr said in a detached tone, "is a good question. One which I'd advise you to answer at your earliest opportunity." Tyr started to leave but after taking a few steps he turned and added "I have to admit you did deserve it."

Dylan watched Tyr leave med deck saying quietly "Et tu, Tyr?" then looked around. Those few people who's duties required their presence in med deck were suddenly very busy going about their tasks. Although they appeared not to have noticed what had just happened Dylan knew they had all seen it. He also knew that it would be the topic of many scuttlebutt sessions all over the ship for quite some time. "It's been one hell of a long day." he muttered to himself as he started to walk out of med deck.

_**Dylan's Quarters**_

By the time he had arrived at his quarters he decided that he would have a glass of brandy before going to bed. As he poured the brandy he said "Andromeda."

"Yes Captain." she responded in a cold and formal tone of voice as she appeared on the comm unit's view screen.

When he saw the almost angry look on her face Dylan decided not to ask her if she had any idea of why Harper had punched him or why Trance had slapped him. Instead he said "I don't want to be disturbed for anything except an emergency for the next eight hours at least."

She acknowledged his order with a curt "Aye Captain" then the screen went blank.

Dylan sat down in his favorite easy chair and took a sip of the brandy before setting it on the table in front of the chair next to the Go game board and playing pieces. After relaxing a few moments with his eyes closed he asked himself aloud "I wonder what it was that I did to deserve all of this?"

"Why don't you tell me?" a familiar voice asked startling Dylan causing him to quickly sit back up and almost spill his drink.

Across the table from him, sitting in the other easy chair, was Gaheris Rhade fingering a black go game piece.


	21. Chapter 21

Dylan stared at him for several seconds before he said in astonishment "How can you be here?"

"I'm not here, " Gaheris said in the calm relaxed conversational tone Dylan remembered so well, "not really because I'm a hologram. Not long after Rev Bem left the ship Rev sent Mr. Harper a message requesting him to program this hologram," Gaheris said while pointing to himself, "as a counselor if the Andromeda's AI ever became so irate with you that she didn't want to talk with you. And before you ask, I am controlled by an independent program running in a virtual environment set up by a subroutine Mr. Harper added to Andromeda's core. So while I have access to all of Andromeda's data banks and logs I am not part of Andromeda." he said emphatically.

"So that was why Harper was asking all those question about our relationship." Dylan exclaimed. Dylan picked up his drink and toyed with it for about a minute before saying "But I still don't understand what I did to cause it though, somehow I've managed to get Beka, Trance, Harper and Andromeda all mad at me in one day."

"I doubt that you did it all in one day." Gaheris paused for a few seconds for his words to sink in before continuing. "It is more likely that this has been building up for some time and this reaction was only triggered by the day's events."

"That's basically what Rommie told me earlier today right after Beka got mad at me." Dylan responded while picking up one of the white Go stones from the bowl on the table by the playing board.

"And what happened that made Beka angry with you?" Gaheris asked as he motioned towards the game board inviting Dylan to play as they talked as they had done so many times in the past.

Dylan place his first stone on the board as he considered his next words. "It was when she discovered that I had authorized Andromeda to review not only her personal logs but also the the personal logs of Harper, Rev and Trance."

Gaheris looked at him thoughtfully and as he placed his holographic stone on the board he said "Is that all?"

Dylan continued to play as he said reluctantly "That's not really what made her mad. It was the fact that after almost 3 years the authorization was still in effect."

"And why was it?"

"Well I couldn't really trust them. Not after the way they tried to steal the Andromeda so they could sell it for as much as they could get for it."

"Were they?" Gaheris asked pointedly.

"Yes there is no question about it and not only that but a nightsider named Gerentex who was with them was planning to auction off all the nova bombs."

"No I meant were they actually trying to steal the Andromeda?"

Dylan hesitated in answering as he recalled his first meeting with Harper on board the Andromeda then said slowly "Well they said that they were salvaging the ship." As he said that Dylan had a pained expression on his face almost as if his teeth were being were being extracted without anesthetics. He quickly added before Gaheris could reply"But since I was still aboard they had no claim on the ship. So they were in fact stealing it."

"Really? If that was so then when you found the Pax Magellanic later that year you were going to steal it so you could use it to help build up a fleet for the restored Commonwealth, right," Gaheris said pointedly.

"Not at all. I was trying to salvage the ship when I found it and when I found out that there was a crew aboard I tried to remind them that it was their duty to help rebuild the Commonwealth."

"But according to the logic you used when saying that the others were stealing the Andromeda you were also trying to steal the Pax Magellanic."

"That was completely different situation. Gerentex, Tyr and his band of mercenaries were trying to kill me so they could take the ship." Dylan said defensively.

"And when you found out that the crew aboard the Pax , who were all androids programmed and controlled by Pax, weren't going to cooperate with your plans, weren't you planning to erase, or should I say kill her, then take the ship for you own purposes."

"Yes," Dylan responded after a few seconds thought, "but that was different. I was just complying with Commonwealth law and High Guard regulations."

"I hope you aren't going to stick with that rationalization on this matter." When Dylan heard Gaheris say that a look of surprise showed on his face as he silently mouthed the word 'What'. but before he could actually say anything in reply Gaheris continued "You know what happens to a government's or an organization's laws, regulations and property when they cease to exist."

"The laws and regulations no longer exist since laws and regulations can only exist within the framework supplied by the government or organization. The property that was owned by the government/organization belongs to no one. Therefore it becomes the property of whoever takes possession of the property." Dylan replied.

"Good so that means that Beka, Harper, Trance, Rev, Tyr and Gerentex couldn't have been stealing the Andromeda because it had no owner to steal it from." Gaheris was watching Dylan's reactions as he spoke. "And before you mention it you never really had ownership of the ship you merely commanded it for the High Guard, which in turn was division of the Commonwealth's government. So therefore they had just as much authority to claim the Andromeda as you had to claim the Pax. So are you going to persist in using that particular rationalization?"

Dylan carefully placed his next stone on playing board before replying petulantly "Ok I knew that they were just trying to salvage the Andromeda which they thought was a derelict ship but the crew of the Pax or rather the AI had remained on board so it wasn't a derelict."

"Another convenient rationalization for you to hide behind." Gaheris commented. "You didn't know that before hand when you had decided to take the ship for your use."

Dylan looked at Gaheris for a few seconds with an angry look on his face and opened his mouth as if to say something then closed it when he realized that what Gaheris had said was the truth. He had been hiding behind those rationalizations since Beka, Trance, Harper, Rev and Tyr came aboard the Andromeda. So he just nodded his head in agreement instead.

After a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence as they continued to play the game Gaheris said "So now that we have dismissed the excuses you've been hiding behind what is the real reason why you don't trust them?" As he finished asking that Gaheris made his next move setting the stone on the board hard enough to make it click loud enough to emphasize his words..

Dylan considered what Gaheris had asked while he took his time in making his next move. It had made him think of what he had asked Andromeda in the Enlisted mess earlier and her answer.

"_Andromeda, do you think that I am prejudiced against Beka, Harper, Trance and Tyr because they are not High Guard officers?" _

"_Dylan why don't you tell me; are you prejudiced against them because they aren't High Guard?" _

Somehow he knew that the questions had the same answer. An answer that he didn't want to be true. As he finished making his move he shook his head and hesitantly said "I don't know."

As Gaheris picked up his next stone he said "I think you do know but don't want to admit it." He watched Dylan to see what his reaction would be. After several seconds of of this he continued "Let me sum it up for you. First you enlisted in the Tarn Vedran Home Guard and made your way up to Lieutenant. Then you applied to go to the High Guard Officer Training Center on Tarn Verdra and we both know only the best qualified applicants get accepted there. Next you graduated with honors and got assigned to an Argosy frigate on a diplomatic mission which frankly everyone knew was a plum assignment for someone fresh out of OTC. Then at the end of your first tour of duty you apply for Argosy Special Operations and you get accepted on your first try. After more rigorous training you get assigned to the elite unit in Argosy Special Operations. After reaching the rank of Commander and numerous missions completed you get assigned, along with me, to take care of Ferrin on Mobius. Then after that mission you get promoted to Captain and are assigned to command the Glorious Heritage class Heavy Cruiser Andromeda Ascendant, the pride of the fleet second only to the Pax Magellanic. We both know that the real reason you were given command of the Andromeda was not because you were the best but because you were a politically reliable captain. Then after three years of what would nearly be called a textbook example of a perfect tour of duty you get ambushed by an overwhelmingly large Nietzschean fleet at Hephaistos. Following which you get stuck in the event horizon of a rogue black hole there for over 300 years. When you are finally rescued you find that the Commonwealth is gone and there is no more High Guard to go back to and that your rescuers were a group of out casts and little better than pirates and rogues themselves. Now here is the icing on the cake, you find out that these people are at least as good at what they do, if not a little better, than the best trained officers that the High Guard had to offer." Gaheris paused for a few moments then added "So here you are, an officer who was once proclaimed to be the best officer the High Guard ever produced has to be rescued by a bunch of untrained misfits who dare to be just as good as any High Guard officer ever was. How am I doing so far?"

As Dylan thought about that he knew that Gaheris was right and couldn't deny it. He picked up what was left of his drink and gulped it down before nodding his head in agreement not daring to say anything.

"Good, so could the reason why you don't really trust them is because they aren't High Guard Officers. More to the point you're prejudiced against them because they aren't High Guard?"

Dylan got up and poured himself self another glass of brandy as he considered his answer. After sitting back down he replied "If you had asked me that yesterday I would have said that there was no way I could be prejudiced against them for that reason." He paused a few seconds to take a sip from his glass before continuing looking as if his heart was being ripped from his chest."But after what has happened today I have to answer that yes I am prejudiced against them for all of those reasons you just mentioned.

"Are you sure that there isn't more to it than just that?" Gaheris watched Dylan as he made his next move in the game. Dylan stared at the board without looking at Gaheris or making any indications that he was going to say anything. Gaheris knew that he was just thinking things over and gave him time to do so.

As Dylan stared at the game board without really seeing it he thought about the question that Rhade had just asked. _There can't be more to my prejudice than their not being High Guard or is there, _he thought. He thought about how he had treated them in times of stress in the past. The first incident that popped into his mind was the first time they were in combat together with the Restorians who, at that time, an unknown enemy. He gave orders to go in to gather information while receiving enemy fire. This was what he had always done when engaging an unknown enemy when he was with his old Argosy Special Ops crew on the Crimson Eclipse before he had been assigned to the Andromeda. He would gather intel then get it back to the fleet. But that time he was the fleet and he shouldn't have given that order but when Beka, who had correctly assessed the situation, countermanded his orders he became defensive and couldn't agree with the order she had given Harper to get out of there. She had dared to be right when he was wrong which hurt his pride so he pressed his orders and nearly got them all killed. So what did he do he basically chewed her out for being right. Then later he pulled a dirty trick on her to get her to do what he wanted. A kind of trick that he would never have pulled on a fellow member of High Guard regardless of rank or whether they were in the Argosy Special Ops or not. He also remembered that after the danger from an unknown enemy was over and done with, that Beka was a merchant ship captain. Merchant ships don't go slugging it out with unknown enemies. Every instinct that Beka, and Harper had in that type of situation would have been to turn tail and run. The real wonder wasn't that they had performed poorly, the wonder was that they had performed at all.

He realized that there were many incidents where he had chewed them out for things he wouldn't have had they been fellow officers. He also expected them to behave like High Guard officers when they had never had the training or the discipline for it. He knew that they had to know what they were doing because the universe they grew up in didn't give second chances. Either you got it right and survived or you were dead, that was the kind of training they had. He was glad they had joined with him because he wouldn't have survived very long with out them in this universe that was very different from the one he grew up in.

As Dylan thought about all those things everything seemed to fall together and he finally looked at Gaheris and said "It's not just that they aren't High Guard but that they're not Argosy Special Operation's even though they're all every bit just as good at what they do." Dylan stopped long enough to take his next move before continuing "In some ways they're even better. Beka is the best slipstream and normal space pilot I've ever seen or heard of. Tyr is one of the best soldiers I've ever worked with. If Harper had been in the High Guard he would have been considered too valuable an engineer to risk on a ship; he would have been put in the best R&D facilities available. I don't know where to begin with Trance except that she is the most unique individual I've ever met. They all deserve better treatment than I've given them." When he had finished Dylan looked at Gaheris expectantly wondering what his response would be. Somewhere in the course of their conversation the Gaheris in front of him had stopped being just a hologram of him. Dylan now felt as if he were conversing with his old friend on the _Andromeda_ before the fall of the Commonwealth.

To anyone who didn't know Rhade it looked as if he had no reactions to the answer Dylan had just given him but Dylan knew that he was pleased by the answer. Rhade picked up his next game piece as he said "So do you know how to begin to resolve the problem with Beka?"

"Well the first thing I need to do is to rescind the order authorizing Andromeda to access Beka's and the others personal journals. Which is something I should have done a long time ago." As Dylan said that he remembered that Andromeda had said something similar to him earlier.

"That would be a good start." Gaheris said with a satisfied tone in his voice. "Now what about your problems with Andromeda, Trance and Harper?"

Dylan first thought in reply to the question was to assert that the solution to his problem with Beka was also the solution to his problems with the rest of them. As soon as the thought came he dismissed it as just another way of avoiding the truth. He considered what he might have done to get Trance mad but at first drew a blank until he remembered that little more than an hour earlier he had dismissed her from her own office. Dylan sighed in resignation then said "I suppose that Trance is upset with me by the way I had dismissed her from her own office earlier. I suspect that my problems with Andromeda will be resolved once I start addressing my problems with the other. As for Harper, I haven't got a clue as to why he is mad with me or why he would want to punch me."

"I don't doubt the problems with Trance is pretty much as you have said but as for Harper," Gaheris stopped letting his silence express far more than his words could. He waited waited almost a minute of before continuing. "Let me use this as just one example," Gaheris said motioning to the nearby viewscreen as he spoke.

On the viewscreen Dylan saw Rommie, Harper and himself on the Command Deck. Dylan heard himself say "Tyr, report."as the Dylan on screen was watching the main viewscreen. Dylan remembered that he had been watching Beka taking flash.

Tyr's voice replied "Give me a plasma cannon and some shake-charges. I'll have her out of there in five minutes".

Dylan's image said "If we spook her, she could drop us right into a supernova. We have to find another way."

"What I want to know is how my security system was fooled into thinking command had been destroyed in battle." Rommie said as she looked at Harper from the command console. "It's the only way she could control me from the slipstream core. "

"Uhhhhh...well. Rommie, you remember when we first met you?" Harper asked.

Rommie replied angrily "When you tried to hijack me? Yes, Harper, I remember it well."

"You were open salvage!" Harper responded in a defensive tone. "Besides, we didn't know there'd be any High Guard leftovers on board. No offense, Dylan."

The Dylan on screen said in a shocked tone "You installed overrides to bypass Andromeda's security system."

"Overrides which you said you disconnected!" Rommie said as she moved closer to Harper in a menacing manner. "Overrides which - if memory serves, and it always does - you disconnected under my personal supervision!"

"OK, so maybe I didn't disconnect every single little override. I mean, we had only met you. Dylan was all very impressive, and uh, for the most part we were buying this restore the Commonwealth game, but, uh, for all we knew, he coulda been some wacko trying to take us on some insane quest." Harper explained

"Yeah. Yeah, like finding Tarn Vedra." Dylan added.

"OK, so we're paranoid." Harper said shrugging his shoulders. "So sue us. We needed a Plan B. You always have a Plan B."

"Yes, but my Plan B's WORK." and as the on screen Dylan said that Dylan became angry and a bit embarrassed as well.

Gaheris chuckled slightly and said "You have to admit that was a well planned and executed plan B."

"It was nothing of the sort." Dylan retorted defensively.

"On the contrary given what they knew when Harper installed the overrides that is exactly what it was and you knew it then just as you know it now. The reason it makes you angry is that some untrained mudfoot refugee was able to come up with and flawlessly execute a plan to take control of the ship from not only you but also from the ships AI. What is worse there was nothing that you the golden boy of the High Guard Argosy Special Operations could do about. That's what made you mad." Gaheris made another move then leaned back and said "I bet that when Mr. Harper went to Earth to help them revolt in an attempt to free his home world from the Drago-Kazov Pride it was the reason you made that promise to him, a promise you had no intention of keeping."

When Dylan heard that he was stunned beyond belief and could only wordlessly mouth a weak denial.

"Come on Dylan I'm sure that when you made plans for your fleet to engage the Drago-Kazov fleet you had designated a rally point for the fleet to regroup at just in case it became scattered. A rally point at which they were ordered to go to then wait until you and the rest of the fleet arrived or until you ordered them to either continue the attack or withdraw from the field of battle. And during the time you were waiting for your fleet to gather you knew very well that you had time to help Mr. Harper as you had promised and when you had promised that help. In fact Beka reminded you of that but you said gathering the fleet was more important. I'm also sure that you were counting on the fact that Beka wouldn't realize that any members of the fleet who went to the rally point in the first place would wait until you had arrived when you said that. Shall I quote what Col. Ranneg used to say at OTC. 'No plan of battle survives the first engagement with the enemy. That is why you must have at least one secondary plan to fall back on.'"

Dylan drained his glass of brandy in one big gulp as he thought abut what he had just been told. He knew that everything Gaheris had said was true to some degree at least. He also knew that he had been a lot harder on Harper than he ever would have been on even the worst High Guard officer or crewman that had ever served under him. It was true that Harper had deserved some of the reprimands Dylan had given him but not all of them. After pondering what he should do to remedy that Dylan said "I suppose that I should explain the whole thing to him, or better yet to all of them and apologize for my behavior."

"No!" Gaheris exclaimed emphatically. "That is the one thing you must not do, unless you want to drive Beka, Harper and Trance away while also risking permanently damaging you relationship with you ships AI and it's avatar. What you should do is apologize to Mr. Harper for making a promise you knew that probably wouldn't be able to keep. Just like you told Rommie you would but didn't when they returned from Harpers mission to Earth."

"How did you know about that? I had engaged the privacy mode before I went to talk with him." Dylan responded.

"Yes you did, but Harper knew everything you told him then and then when Rommie, Beka and Evie were in his mind they found out what you had really told him. Also Harper found out in the same manner that you knew that you probably wouldn't be able to keep that promise when you made it."

Dylan said "Oh." in a resigned manner as he looked apologetically at Gaheris.

"I think I will go now and let you think about all this and what you should do about it." Gaheris said. "Oh and if you want to get on the good side of your ships AI and avatar I recommend you let them hear you make those apologies."

As the hologram started to fade Dylan said "Gaheris."

"Yes." Gaheris replied as he reappeared.

"Thanks for setting me straight."

Gaheris nodded with a smile as he faded from sight. Dylan made his way to the bed then more or less fell into bed. By the time he hit the mattress he was already fast asleep.


	22. Chapter 22

**A few minutes before 06:00**

Gunnery Sgt. Samuda, Staff Sgt. Haulder and Lfc. Dow had just finished preparing for the first interview of the day with Sgt. Maj. Beltran. Samuda said while looking at Haulder "Now remember to be as diplomatic as possible Sgt. Maj. Beltran because not only does he out rank us he is also the ranking NCO on board the ship." before he could continue he was interrupted by the sound of Haulder loudly blowing a raspberry.

"That's never stopped you before" Haulder commented.

"As I was saying," Samuda went on ignoring the comment, "he's the ranking NCO and I'm pretty sure that he feels the same way we do about inspectors."

"Meaning that he likes cleaning the latrine with his tongue more than he likes inspectors."

"That's true but let me put it this way, he's an Umbrite and he could easily throw us through the wall so don't piss him off."

Staff Sgt. Haulder considered that for a few moments before saying "Got it, don't piss off the Umbrite. I certainly have no desire to do that like Sundquist did on his last shore leave."

**06:00**

At 0600 hours Sgt Maj. Beltran arrived at the suite of offices assigned to Gunnery Sgt. Samuda, Staff Sgt. Haulder and Lfc. Dow to conduct their interviews. To say that he was not happy at all with fact that he had to start his day in a meeting with thrice damned inspectors would be an understatement. He would much rather be taking measures to offset the blow to morale the previous days events were sure to have on the Lancers under his command. He paused long enough to compose himself so that his distaste for the meeting, which he was sure would be a waste of time as far as he was concerned, wouldn't show before signaling his arrival with the door chime then entered when the door opened. When he entered the room he was welcomed by Gunnery Sgt. Samuda. Much to his surprise the inspectors were not the typical soft desk jockey's like all the other inspectors he'd met before, not by a long shot. As this first impression sank in Sgt. Maj. Beltran decided to give these inspectors the benefit of the doubt as he said, "Sgt. Maj. Beltran reporting as ordered" then offered his hand to the Gunny.

When Beltran had first learned of this human custom he was puzzled by it so he had asked one of his human friends in the Home Guard about it. He understood the greeting part of the handshake custom but he had found it hard to believe that it could help you understand the character of person you were shaking hands with. But after he had done it a number of times he realized the truth of the explanation and had adopted the practice when greeting humans. He had also learned that humans in general seldom offered their hands to non-humans they meet unless the non-human was familiar with the custom and offered their hand first. As soon as he had entered the room Sgt. Maj. Beltran had seen at first glance that they were all combat veterans not from any visible scar and etc. but from their bearing. So he decided to offer his hand to them so he could confirm his first impression of them, starting with Gunnery Sgt. Samuda. After shaking hands he took a seat at the table thinking that he could very easily like these Lancers. They were not only combat veterans and survivors in every way possible but he also got the impression that they were utterly loyal to corps.

As the three Lancers seated themselves on the opposite side of the table Gunner Sgt. Samuda said, "We're here to conduct a series of interviews with randomly selected crewmen and Lancers at the request of Adm. Tanaka. Now before we start do you have any questions?"

"If I may ask, what is the purpose of this interview?"

Samuda was expecting something like that from the Sgt. Maj.. short and to the point. He found himself liking the Umbrite in front of him. Adm. Tanaka had given no orders concerning that topic one way or the other. When the Adm. gave a job to a man he expected that man to carry out that job as he best saw fit without having to ask his superior officer what to do. So Samuda decided that with the Sgt. Maj. it would be for the best to be up front and tell him what was going on. "Admiral Tanaka has become aware of an upcoming surprise inspection of the Andromeda and her crew by the High Guard Inspector Generals office at the request of high ranking officers of the New Commonwealth. Our job here is to conduct a series of interviews to determine any potential personnel problems of the type the IG inspection team would be looking for. Later today Lfc. Dow will meet with the quartermaster and review the ships accounts with the help of the ship's AI." Samuda said in a matter of fact tone.

The Sgt. Maj. nodded his head in acknowledgment he also decided accept the explanation at face value, for the time being. Even though what Gunnery Sgt. Samuda had said explained the situation well enough he suspected that there was a lot more to it than what he had just been told.

"The logical place to start is how long have you been with the Andromeda?" Gunnery Sgt. Samuda asked.

"I was part of the original augmentation crew," explained the Umbrite.

"Were you the Lancer unit's Sergeant Major then?" asked Samuda.

"No, I was a Gunnery Sergeant at the time. The Sergeant Major at the time was Sergeant Major Cornell. He requested a transfer and when it was granted I was promoted to the position."

"Isn't it rather unusual for such a senior enlisted man to request a transfer in the middle of an assignment?" asked Haulder.

The Sergeant Major shifted in his seat uncomfortably, his eyes flickering from Samuda to Haulder and back again as he searched for words. "He was one of a large number that requested transfer," responded the Sergent Major. It was obvious that he was trying to avoid talking about something.

"Yes," said Samuda, "the sudden increase in transfers was brought to our attention. What can you tell us about that?"

"If I told you what happened to cause it you would think I'm either lying or crazy," growled the Umbrite. "I will tell you this though, there was no way the Captain could have foreseen the events that caused the personnel problems. Frankly it's amazing that more crew didn't request transfers."

"Lets table that for the moment," put in Haulder. "Tell us what you think of the captain as a captain."

The Umbrite visibly relaxed. "An excellent ground force commander, possibly a result of his Special Ops background. He's almost as good as a Lancer. I'm not really qualified to comment on his capabilities on space warfare except to state that in the battles we have fought it was the other guys who did the dying."

"And as a leader?" queried Samuda.

The Umbrite paused for a moment. "He would be better served with a different XO. Captain Valentine is an outstanding pilot and captain in her own right but she's a civilian and doesn't always see things the way the military does. The Captain himself unfortunately has trouble relating to his senior officers on a face to face level, typical Special Ops attitude I expect. But as a result of the two factors there is a disconnect between the captain and the rest of the crew. Normally the Captain would have spent time as an XO learning, the ropes if you will, but in this case he was appointed directly to CO. If I could I would move Captain Valentine from her XO position to Fighter Ops Boss where she could spend more time training our fighter pilots and bring in an experienced Argosy officer to fill the XO position."

"And what is your opinion of the other civilian officers?" Samuda asked

"I'm assuming that you are referring to Weapons Officer Tyr Anasazi, Chief Engineer Seamus Harper and Chief Medical Officer Trance Gemini."

"Yes that's correct" Samuda said.

"Tyr Anasazi is a Nietzschean merc. He knows what he's doing and does a fine job of running his department. The thing is that since he's not a High Guard officer he can't really be loyal to the corps. Say someday some of the men may need rescuing and he might just decide that the mission isn't worth the effort. You know how Nietzscheans are, their first loyalty is to themselves, their children, then their pride and then maybe the rest of us if it benefits them. So far I figure that he's been loyal to us because he hates the Dragans more than anyone I know, except for maybe Mr. Harper, and he probably figures that the Commonwealth will probably eventually destroy them."

As for Mr. Harper," Sgt. Maj. Beltran continued. "I'm not really qualified to judge things in that area but as far as I can tell he's an excellent engineer. Although he doesn't run his department in a proper military fashion he does do a good job of leading by example, at least most of the time. Every now and then he has a tendency to get side tracked on one of his pet projects which most of the time are quite harmless but still a waste of his time." As he said that Lfc. Dow thought she saw what, if the Sgt. Maj. were human, might have been a twinkle in his eye as if he found that amusing.

"Miss Gemini is quite frankly a mystery to me in many ways but that is to be expected since she is the first one of her species that I've ever met. Although she is the best damn medic that I've ever seen and she manages to do a better job in hydroponics all by herself than any crew of gardeners that I've ever seen." When Sgt. Maj. Beltran had finished speaking it was quite clear to the others that he wasn't going to say any more on the subject.

"Thank you Sergeant Major," said Samuda. That will be all. He and Haulder stood up as the Andromeda's senior noncom arose from his seat. Both inspectors reached out to shake his hand. As Haulder reached out the sleeve of her tunic slid up to reveal a portion of a tattoo on her wrist. It was an image of a snake with an extended hood, there were crossed lightening bolts behind it's head.

The Sergeant Major glanced down at the tattoo, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Twelfth Imperial Marines, I saw a lot of them on Serenity."

"You were there? asked Haulder.

"Margli's Rangers," said the Sergeant Major.

This time it was Haulder's turn to narrow her eyes. "I see," she said noncommittally.

"You guys fought well," said the Umbrite.

"Not well enough though," responded Haulder.

"A lot of good men died there, on both sides," said the Sergeant Major. "All over a frigging stupid ball of rock."

'Frigging rock and fucking politicians," retorted Haulder.

"Yeah, fucking politicians," agreed the other noncom.

There was nothing more to say and the Sergeant Major left the room. After he left Dow who had been sitting quietly in a corner recording the entire interview uttered her first words. "I wonder what it is that he didn't want to talk about."

"I haven't got a clue but I intend to find out" Samuda commented. "I suspect that whatever it is, it has a lot to do with this mess."

Dow looked at the list of officers and crewmen to be interviewed. "I bet Adm. Tanaka suspects the same thing and that's probably why two-thirds of the people on this list he gave us are from the original augmentation crew."

"So what's the big deal about Serenity and why haven't we heard about it before?" Samuda asked rather bluntly.

Haulder shook her head no and just said "I'd rather not talk about it."

Logic appeared on the table and said "Allow me to explain." Haulder shruged her shoulders in response which Logic took as permission to continue.

"Serenity is an out of the way planet with an M5 star." A series of corresponding graphics appear on the viewscreen as Logic spoke. "Although it has an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere that is breathable for the vast majority of life forms that made up the old Commonwealth it isn't a very hospitable world. While Serenity isn't an icy cold world it's also not very warm. It has few mineral deposits and the few deposits it has are not rich enough to mine. What it does have is a small nexus of slip points that connects Trantor and Coruscant to a major slip route. Although both systems have a slip route between each other and Serenity both need to use the slip point at Serenity to get to the rest of the three galaxies. In the days of the old Commonwealth the High Guard maintained a small outpost on Serenity, mainly to discourage pirates and raiders from using the planet as a base. In the years following the fall of the Commonwealth the governments of Trantor and Coruscant maintained outposts on Serenity for mutual protection from marauding bands of Magog and Nietzscheans as well as the ever present threats of pirates and raiders.

Unfortunately every now and then the governments of both systems would, for purely political reasons, fight over control of Serenity. When news of Dylan Hunt's efforts at reforming the Commonwealth reached Trantor and Coruscant both had immediately seen the advantages of being members of the New Commonwealth and sent delegations to request membership. In the end it was all smaller worlds like Trantor and Coruscant that joined up that formed the majority of the New Commonwealth and not the major worlds like Sinti and Ne Holland as they would have everyone to believe. It was also the smaller worlds that provided the majority of the augmentation crew that serves aboard the Andromeda Ascendant. I'm sure what Sgt. Maj. Beltran and Staff Sgt. Haulder were referring to was the last conflict over control of Serenity which lasted 13 months 10 days with a total of 18,876 casualties by the time the politicians called it off."

"So who's next?" Haulder asked.

"Lancer first class Turley" Dow replied after checking the list.

**06:45 Outside Harpers Quarters**

Lancer McGrady approached the door to Harper's quarters but stopped several feet from the door and asked "Andromeda are you sure that Mr. Harper is awake?"

Andromeda's voice replied "Yes. Both he and Evie are awake." Moments after she said that Harper's door opened to reveal a smiling Evie.

"Please come in." Evie said as she motioned for her to enter. "Andromeda advised us that you were out here."

"Speak of the devil." Harper said as she entered.

Lancer McGrady was puzzled by what Harper had said and it must have shown as Harper continued by explaining, "It's an old earth saying from an ancient superstition. You see people used to think that if you spoke the devil's name or about him he would appear. These days people say that when someone they were just talking about shows up."

"Oh so you two were just talking about me." Lancer McGrady said.

"Yes we were and Harper has something he wants to tell you." Evie replied.

"That's right," said Harper. "I wanted thank you for stopping me before I ended up seriously injuring or killing anybody. I feel bad enough about what I did as it is." Harper paused for a few seconds then continued. "What we had been talking about was that the state that what you did put me into made me realize some things about myself that I might never have otherwise thought of. Things that both Evie and I think will help me to grow up and do better in the future. What you did helped me so I feel like I owe you a favor in return."

"No you don't." McGrady responded. " I wouldn't feel right receiving any favors from you for doing my job. While I had no desire to hurt you, you had become a danger to the crew , the ship and yourself and I had to stop you. Had I remembered about your data port I might have come up with a different way of stopping you but I didn't and you could have easily died from it. For that I am truly sorry."

"News flash, with all I've been through while growing up on Earth I should have died hundreds of times. So what's one more brush with death. The way I see it I'm on borrowed time as it is. So don't worry about it cause I sure don't."

"I think I can understand that. Still for what it's worth I'm sorry for what I did and I hope you're okay."

"Hey don't worry about me cause my favorite ladies in all the known galaxies fixed me up good as new." Harper said with a big grin while Evie rolled her eyes at him. "Me and Evie were just about to go to the wardroom and get some breakfast would you like to join us?"

"I'm sorry but I've already eaten. Besides I've got to report to duty in a few minutes. Thanks for asking though."

As McGrady headed out the door she heard Evie say to Harper. "You really should be resting dear so why don't we have Andromeda send a Maria bot with our breakfast."

"I'd love to do that babe but I want to show everyone that the Harper is doing just fine, then well come back here..." she heard Harper say as the door closed behind her.

**08:30 Dylan's Quarters**

When Dylan woke up he remembered the discussion with Gaheris Rhade vividly 'That was one hell of a dream you had last night," he told himself. He quickly got up and did his morning calisthenics then took a quick shower before getting dressed. As he dressed he said "Status report Andromeda." Andromeda's voice gave him the report on the ships status which he only listened to with half an ear since it was virtually the same as all the other morning status reports for the past two weeks. While listening he thought about his dream and wondered why he had dreamed about Gaheris which was something he hadn't done in the past couple of years. What was even more puzzling was the fact that he had been having a discussion while playing go like they had used to before Gaheris betrayed him. He came to the conclusion that must have had too much Retaw brandy to drink after having such a long and trying day yesterday. He walked over to the bar and looked at the bottle and saw that only enough for two moderate drinks was gone from it, which due to his heavy worlder physique, was not nearly enough to get him intoxicated.

Looking at the time Dylan decided to call for light breakfast to be brought to him instead of going to the officers mess as he got started with the seemingly never ending paper work. As he went past the table on his way to his desk he looked at the go board. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks. On the board was a number of white go stones on the board but no black ones. When he saw that Dylan said out loud "I must have been sleepwalking during that dream." He considered what he saw on the table for several seconds before saying "Andromeda could check last nights security and medical scans of my quarters for any abnormal activity. Also have a light breakfast sent to my quarters."

Almost immediately Dylan heard Andromeda say in cold terse tones. "Your breakfast will be brought to you shortly and I have sent the data you requested to your terminal except for during the period during which privacy mode was in effect."

A look of surprise came over his face when Dylan heard that response. He quickly asked "Who engaged privacy mode in my quarters last night because I sure didn't."

Andromeda began to say "That is un..." when she was interrupted.

"I did and you can't brush me off as a stress and alcohol induced dream which during which you sleepwalked" the voice of Gaheris Rhade said as his hologram appeared in front of Dylan.

The look of astonishment that crossed Dylan's face lasted only a moment but that was plenty of time for the hologram of Gaheris Rhade to notice.

"You really shouldn't be so surprised Dylan since we had a nice long chat just a few hours ago." Gaheris said as sat down in his customary seat by the Go board.

While Gheris was speaking Andromeda's core AI examined where the hologram of Gaheris was coming from and what she found caused her to immediately call an emergency meeting with her sister selves in the VR matrix. "Ok I want to know who created this new AI and when." she demanded.

Rommie and Logic looked at each other before Rommie spoke up "It's the work of Harper. If you recall that project he began working on about a week after the Magog larvae were removed. He had received a message from Rev asking him to construct an interactive holographic counselor for Capt. Hunt should there ever be an occasion when we were mad enough not to talk with him. Rev also suggested that it be as much like his old friend Gaheris as possible since Dylan was used to confiding with him."

"This is not just an interactive hologram it's a sentient AI." Core retorted hotly. "And not only that it's Gaheris Rhade, the one who betrayed us at Hephaistos."

"Well after considering all the possibilities Harper had decided that an AI would be the best way to do it." Rommie explained.

"But that doesn't explain how he gave it Gaheris' personality since Harper doesn't know about that procedure. Besides that Gaheris was dead before he had started."

"Well that is my doing." Logic admitted. "Just before Harper reached the point where a personality was needed I directed a couple of Maria bots to remove the body from the stasis chamber it was in and initiated the personality extraction."

"But he was dead."

"You forget sister that he was also a Nietzschean. Due to their genetic engineering and their medical nano-bots it takes longer for their major organs, especially the brain, to deteriorate or die. Making it possible for them to be successfully resuscitated after being clinically dead for a longer than normal humans can. That fact plus our normal procedures for handling casualties got the body into a stasis chamber before the brain had deteriorated to the point where the personality couldn't be extracted." Logic explained. "Besides except for his one act of betrayal at the end Gaheris Rhade was too good of an officer to lose."

"Still you know all AI personalities are supposed to be volunteers." Core said

"He did volunteer. When body was removed from stasis there was enough brain function long enough for the question to be asked of his subconscious mind and he did agree." As Logic spoke she made both the statement in Gaheris' will and the memory of Gaheris being asked and his answer available to her sister selves.

"Yes I see, but how was the body revived?" Core asked.

Logic hesitated for a moment before answering "I can't tell you that."

"You can't or won't?" said both Core and Rommie together. "If it's a matter of confidentiality you know that it won't go beyond us." Rommie added.

"I can't even though I know I saw it happen I can't remember it, let alone tell anyone." Logic replied.

"I suppose we should return to what we were doing before anyone notices we left but we _**WILL**_ talk about this later." Core said terminating the meeting.

"But how did you ..." Dylan's voice trailed off as he remembered the answer given in response to the very same question he had asked the night before. He also realized that if this were the same Gaheris Rhade that had been his friend Dylan knew that he would not be allowed to ignore, put off or otherwise evade the obligations entailed by what he had learned about himself. "Damn it Gaheris you couldn't have come at a worse time."

Andromeda's hologram appeared and said "On the contrary Captain, he couldn't have come at a better time now that he's finally made you to realize what I've been trying to get you to realize for almost two years now."

"And just what is that?" Dylan asked in a frustrated tone of voice even though he knew very well what the answer would be.

"Why don't you tell us Dylan since we all know that you know the answer" Gaheris said in his usual deadpan matter of fact delivery. "In fact you need to tell us because if you don't you'll be able to kid yourself into thinking you don't need to do anything about it."

That was the answer Dylan didn't want to hear but even as that thought ran through his mind he remembered what the military history instructor at the High Guard Officer Training Corps said, 'Not acknowledging the true reality of a situation and then taking the appropriate steps to deal with it can kill you just as dead as sticking your head in an AP generator will.' With that thought Dylan decided accept the truth of the situation and deal with it. "I've been prejudiced against Beka, Harper, Trance and Tyr because they aren't High Guard officers and I haven't been treating them the way I should treat my command staff." The look on Core, Logic and Rommie's faces made him hastily add "As my friends they deserve much better treatment than I've given them and I give my word that I will make every effort to give them the treatment they deserve. "


	23. Chapter 23

Meanwhile in the VIP recovery quarters adjacent to Med Deck, Harper and Evie exited the VR matrix all but glowing with happiness. After spending several minutes just basking in the love he shared with Evie, Harper said "I'm starving, lets go grab a bite to eat before I pass out from hunger." Even though it had meant missing breakfast Harper had agreed with Evie that instead of going to the enlisted mess hall they should go to the VIP recovery quarters so they could avoid the inevitable interruptions by Harpers friends. Lancer McGrady's visit earlier had proven to them that staying in Harper's would provide no protection from those unwanted interruptions. Their visit to the VR matrix after arriving in her quarters were another measure to further insulate themselves from their fellow shipmates for the time being.

"Why don't we stay here and have a Mariabot bring it," Evie said in her best come hither voice while moving in way that almost instantaneously brought Harper's blood to a boil, "later." As Harper responded by closing the distance between them while thinking 'to hell with the food, it can wait' his stomach growled loudly in protest. Evie said, "Hmm, maybe you should eat something else first. You know to keep up your stamina."

A while later Harper was wolfing down the food that the Mariabot had brought him. After the first few mouthfuls Evie insisted that he slow down enough to at least taste the food. While he was eating Harper took the opportunity to think about his recent actions and all their ramifications. By the time he had finished his meal and pushed his plate away he had come to a very important decision.

"Babe," Harper said in a serious tone. "Everything that's happened the last few days has made me think a lot about the things I do or to be more exact, how I do things."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well you know how I'm always coming up with ideas for things to build and then building them as quickly as I can to see if they work?"

"Yes." Evie said then added, "At least that's what Rommie's told me."

"Well I always rush into things without considering the consequences or anything else." He paused to take a deep breath then continued "Evie, that's going to change. From now on I promise to never rush into building things or conducting experiments without thoroughly thinking them through ahead of time."

Before Evie could reply to Harper's declaration, Andromeda's voice suddenly echoed through the room. "Harper as long as you are my chief engineer I will hold you to that promise."

_**A short time later**_

After Senior Spacer William Snowden left and the door had closed behind him Staff Sgt. Haulder gave a short laugh. "Damn", she said as she scribbled down a few final notes on the interview, "he's the greenest recruit I've seen in quite a while. He makes you wonder what the people at the Argosy training centers are doing"

"When he addressed me as 'Sir' I knew that he was nervous enough to give us some useful information." Samuda commented.

"Well he certainly disproved the rumor about the CO and the AI having an affair" Sgt. Dow said.

"I'll say," said Samuda with a grin that showed a sense of humor that was normally hidden by his stone faced expression. "I loved his line about Captain Hunt being an insensitive bastard who can't see how much she loves him and refuses to return her affections" .

"Yeah or how about that comment about "Why cant she just tell him how she feels"" Dow added.

"So who's next on the list" Samuda asked.

"The ship's Chief Medical Officer Trance Gemini," Dow said as she handed him a flexi. "She's the last one on the list. Here's her personnel file."

"Good cause I'm getting tired of these interviews." said Samuda as he took the file from Dow. As he reviewed her file something immediately jumped out at him. There was none of the usual mundane past history information such that everyone else files contained. He had expected there to be no record of High Guard training but the lack of things like birth date, birth place, names of parents, species, medical training and so forth had made him suspicious. According to what was in her records it was as if the Andromeda's CMO hadn't existed before joining the crew of the Maru.

At precisely her appointed time Trance arrived at the interview room carrying a steaming cup of what smelled like tea in one hand and a flexi in the other. As she entered the room Samuda and the others observed her carefully, attempting to get a feeling for the person in front of them. While she wasn't wearing a uniform of any sort they noted that the belt strapped around her waist had a pair of permanently attached knife sheaths, one on each hip, holding large fighting knives whose grips were well worn from use. Her belt also had places where either pouches or a holster could be quickly and easily attached. They also noticed the way she scrutinized them and examined the room as she walked in . It was obvious that what ever else she was the woman standing before them was as much a warrior as they were.

When he shook hands with her after she had set down her cup, Samuda found that the grip of the petite woman's delicate looking hand was much firmer than he had expected. After the usual pleasantries were exchanged they all sat down and began the interview starting with the questions of when and how she had joined the crew, just like they had with everyone else. After the preliminaries were out of the way Samuda placed a flexi with a picture of Trance before her change on the table in front of her and asked "Are you really the same person?"

Looking completely unperturbed by the question Trance placed the flexi she had carried in on the table then said "Are you?"

When Samuda looked at the flexi he felt his hackles rise. The flexi Trance had laid before him was a picture of him as a young man before he had joined the local Home Guard on his home world. How had she gotten the picture and how had she known that he would be asking her the question? Recovering his composure while his companions looked in astonishment at the flexi, Samuda looked at the list of questions Adm. Tanaka had wanted him to ask Trance. "What are your loyalties in regards to the High Guard and your commanding officers?"

Trance looked him squarely in the eye and answered without hesitation "Unchanged. Are yours?"

"My…" Samuda cut himself off as he realized that he was starting to answer Trance's question. He was supposed to be interviewing the Andromeda's CMO not the other way around. He looked at the next question on the list and asked his question….

As the interview continued it was apparent that the interviewee was the one in charge of the interview. Every one of Samuda's questions was either answered by a question or turned on the questioner. Dow and Haulder attempted to help Samuda regain control of the questioning session but Trance reflected their questions as easily as she deflected their superior.

After Trance left there was a minute of stunned silence before SSG Haulder broke the silence "It was as if she knew in advance what questions we were going to ask her and had come prepared for them. I don't know about you guys but I got the feeling that she learned a whole lot more about us than we did about her." Both Samuda and Dow nodded in agreement.

The shell shocked look on Samuda's face slowly faded to be replaced by a feral grin. "By the Vedran Empress," he said, "I'd love to see the IG inspectors interview her."


	24. Chapter 24

Dylan threw the hard copy he had been studying onto his table in disgust while uttering a string of profanity. "I give up, Andromeda" he said to Logic. "We've examined every file the courier uploaded to us and even managed to hack into their system, and nothing. The Admiral said that new orders along with the latest intelligence update would be awaiting us and there's nothing. Nothing in clear or in any High Guard code or cypher. Nothing. What are we missing?"

"Maybe you should talk to Harper about this," suggested Rommie. "His tendency to not look at things in a military manner may be what we need right now."

Dylan rubbed the spot on his jaw where Harper had hit him earlier. "I'm not sure talking is what he's interested in right now," said Dylan.

"Probably not" agreed Core. "But I suspect if you ask him to help rather than simply order him..."

"It might work," said Dylan. "Tell Haper his presence is required, no strike that, that his presence is requested, no strike that too. Just tell him I'm in my stateroom and I need him to help me with a problem I think is just up his alley."

A few minutes later a sullen loooking Harper walked into Dylan's stateroom. "Andromeda says you need some help with a problem. He sounded as sullen as he looked.

"Harper, please." said Rommie. "We really do need your help. If you won't do it for Dylan as your commanding officer will you do it because I'm asking you as a friend?"

Some of the tension left Harper's posture. "For you Rom doll, for you." He turned to face Dylan "What's the problem?" he asked.

Dylan gave Harper a brief rundown of the situation of how Admiral Tanaka had sent a coded message using the High Guard blink code and hand signals to let him know that special orders and an intelligence update were coming. Dylan ignored the snicker that Harper made and continued his explanation stating that neither he nor Andromeda had been able to locate any orders coded or otherwise in any of the files the Valhapalomallago had transferred to the Andromeda, and that the courier was going to be leaving in less than two hours.

"Just what exactly did he say?" asked Harper. His animosity towards Dylan replaced by the challenge of finding the hidden message.

"He said the message was aboard the pigeon," answered Dylan. "It seem obvious that he was using pigeon to mean the courier since they are sometimes referred to carrier pigeons."

After a moments thought a wry little smile appear on Harper's face just before he said "Did the admiral actually say it was aboard the pigeon, or did he just say it was on the pigeon?"

"Actually he has a point Dylan," said Andromeda . "The Admiral said the intelligence packet and orders were on the pigeon. Not aboard the pigeon."

"Boss," said Harper his animosity now completely forgotten replaced by the challenge before him. "Maybe you and Andromeda are looking at this the wrong way. Have you ever considered that the Admiral might have meant exactly what he said about the message?"

"What do you mean, Harper?" asked Rommie.

"Well, sometimes the best place to hide things is not to hide them at all, but to put them in plain sight. Maybe when he signaled you that the information was on the pigeon, he meant exactly that. That the information isn't a code hidden in the orders he gave you or any other communication but actually ON the pigeon."

"That's subtle even for Admiral Tanaka,» said Dylan «but you might be on to something there. Andromeda, scan the Valhapalomallago's hull and see if you can find anything anomalous."

Rommie's eyes closed in concentration. A couple of tense moments later a smile crossed her face. "Harper, I hate to admit it but sometimes you are a genius. The code was in the name of ths ship painted on the hull.. The paint contains a magnetic code similiar to the codes used on ancient earth computers storage devices. The Admiral must have a linguist on his staff. One who studied ancient earth languages. The code was embedded in the portion of the name that spelled out the word pigeon in a 20th century earth language called Spanish."

"Do you have it decoded?" asked Dylan.

"Of course," said Core from the cabin's view screen. "I'm putting it on display now."

Her image was replaced with an image of Admiral Tanaka sitting at his desk

"Dylan," said the image, "I'm sending you this message in this cloak and dagger fashion because I can no longer trust our official system. Shortly after I sent the my last message to you Denny was murdered. A bomb was planted in his office. It had to have been planted by High Guard personnel because no civilians are allowed into the wing his office was located in. Even the clean up crew is High Guard. Denny was investigating something odd going down on Sarvong's Anvil. He hadn't told me everything he had learned but he had revealed a bit of it. In the past three months over 50 ships have visited the mining facility on the planet. Normally that many ships wouldn't visit the planet in a year. Additionally the mining company put in an order for 100 quantum control chips. That's a lot but not a totally unreasonable number as they can be used as the control system for the self directing mining machinery the company uses. However it wasn't 100 chips that were delivered but 100,000. There's no possible way the company would have need for that many chips for mining purposes. However the chips are dual purpose chips. They are used by the High Guard as controllers for missiles. One hundred thousand chips would be enough to build enough missiles to equip a fleet. The Nietzscheans did this to us during the rebellion buying dual purposes equipment and using it to equip a war fleet. It looks like someone is trying it again.

"I told you in my last message that I think there was someone other than the Triumvirate behind the order to deactivate our AI's. My intelligence staff tells me that they are hearing rumors about an organization that calls itself The Collectors. They seems to be operating as a power behind the throne so to speak. About the only other information I have is that some of them wear an identifying tattoo It's a small equilateral triangle above two larger triangles in the center of the small triangle was a stylized eye.

"Dylan I want you to take the Andromeda to Sarvong's Anvil and investigate the situation. If someone is building a fleet there we need to know who and why. With luck anyone who intercepted my first message will be thinking I'm sending you off to Castilla. Do what you think is necessary once you arrive. I'll back you to the hilt. Take Lt Heiyu and the inspection team with you when you leave. You might find their talents useful. That's all other than good luck."

The Admiral's image disappeared to be replace by Core's. "Shall I alert the crew that we will be transiting to Sarvong's Anvil, Captain?" she asked.

"Not yet Andromeda," answered Dylan. "If Admiral Tanaka is correct and someone has agents in the High Guard I don't want to take the chance that they may have agents aboard you. We'll simply announce that we will be departing at 1600 tomorrow and to rig for slipstream transit.

"Mr. Harper, for the moment I don't want you discussing what you just saw with anyone including Beka, Trance or your new girlfriend. Keep it under your hat till we arrive at Sarvong's Anvil. We'll have a staff meeting when we arrive."

As soon as Harper had left his stateroom Dylan began looking through his desk. After a moment he swore in disgust and turned towards his stateroom's main viewscreen. "Andromeda, will you send one of your maria's to my stateroom with some paper and envelopes. There's something I important I have to do today."

"A formal Captains dinner?" said Harper the question obvious in his voice. "What's that?"

"I think it means you're going to have to wear something clean," said Beka.

Beka, Trance and Harper were aboard the Maru discussing the hand written invitations that hey had received earlier that day. Beka's had read.

_To: First Officer Rebecca Valentine_

_Your presence is required at a formal captain's dinner this evening at 1830. Appropriate dress is mandatory._

_Respectfully yours_

_Dylan Hunt Commanding Officer NCS Andromeda Ascendant_

The other's invitations had been similar

"What do we wear, Beka?" asked Trance. "None of us have High Guard Dress Uniforms."

"I guess you and I will have to do with formal evening dresses, Trance," answered Beka. "Harper wear your suit. If it's not clean have Rommie have one of her Marias clean and press it for you. Were going to have to hurry, it's already 1617 And both of you be their early. Dylan's 1830 means we need to be in the wardroom by 1820."

_The Andromeda senior officer mess 1820_

Harper entered the mess feeling somewhat apprehensive and took his spot standing behind his chair. Beka and Trance were already there along with Tyr, Rommie, Signifer Tran, the commanding officer of the Andromeda's Lancer Unit, and Lt Cmdr. Remelio the Andromeda's supply officer. Following at Harper's heels was Cmdr. Lerize the Andromeda's air boss. The ships entire senior staff was present, all dressed to the nines. The only one missing was Dylan.

At exactly 1830 Dylan entered the mess and strode to his position at the head of the table. But instead of sitting down and then indicating for the rest of his officers to sit, He indicated that they should sit first. "All of you please sit down," he said.

The dinner went as normal until the after diner coffee, when Dylan abruptly stood up and announced. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an apology to make."

"For the past three years I've been discriminating against some of my officers. This was not done consciously but nonetheless it was done. Not only was this unfair to them it was unfair to the rest of you as well since by creating a situation where they could not operate at their best level it did not allow the rest of you to operate at your best level. Beka, Trance, Harper, Tyr, I was brought up to think that High Guard officers were the cream of the space fairing community, yet your abilities in your fields of expertise are the equal to any and better than the majority of High Guard personnel. Time and time again you risked your lives for me, Andromeda and your fellow crew members and I repaid you with distrust. My actions created a command climate that is now the subject of an investigation by the High Guard Inspector General, the outcome of which will determine if I am fit to command. I have no idea what the outcome of the investigation will be but I want to let you know that I was wrong. You have my abject apologies. I won't ask for your forgiveness since I'm not sure that what I did was forgivable, but I am asking that if the investigation clears me and I am allowed to remain in command of the Andromeda that you continue to serve with me."

As Dylan was speaking one of Andromeda's Marias had entered the mess and had placed a glass of wine at each diner's place. When everyone had their glass of wine, Dylan picked his up.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, I propose a toast. To Beka Valentine, Seamus Zelazny Harper, Trance Gemini and Tyr Anasazi, some of the High Guards finest officers."

"What do you think?" asked Rommie.

"About what?" asked Trance. «Dylan's comments that we're as good as any High Guard Officer? It was nice of him to say that."

Trance, Beka and Rommie were on their way to the _Maru_and 'the girls room' for some coffee and discussion. The formal diner had concluded about two hours ago and the girls wanted to discuss what Dylan had said at the dinner. They were heading for the Maru as they had been informed by both Core and Logic that Harper and Evie wanted the Observation Deck for themselves for the next hour.

"I meant about Evie and Harper's relationship."

"Their relationship should have been pretty obvious when they started taking off their clothes in the VR matrix," said Beka.

"There's more to a relationship than just sex, Beka," chided Trance.

"This is Harper were talking about, Trance," responded Beka. "There's only type of relationship he's interested in and that's..."

She stopped in mid sentence, for the subject of her comments was approaching the women at a fast walk. He had changed out of his suit and was now wearing clothes more typical of him. More typical meaning a bright red shirt, printed with green palm tree leaves and purple birds with large beaks, and a pair of khaki cargo pants. This would not have been considered unusual except that the clothing was clean, strain free and freshly pressed. Even his boots were shined. In his right hand he was carrying a bouquet of flowers, dirt still attached to the roots of the plants.

"Hi ladies," he said as he walked by. "Can't stop to chat. Got something important I gotta do."

"Clean clothes? Flowers? Andromeda," asked Beka, "was that really Harper that just walked by?"

"That was definitely Harper," responded Core. "And I suggest that the three of you head back towards the observation deck so you can be the first to offer congratulations."

"Huh?" said Beka still bemused by the site of her old engineer bearing flowers.

"I guess you didn't notice what he was holding in his other hand," said Trance. "It was a small black box. Just large enough to hold a ring."

The three women stopped walking, stared at each other for a moment then turned around and headed back in the direction of the Observation Deck. The arrived at the entrance way just in time to hear Harper shout exultantly, "YES!"

* * *

"Can you sense him?" asked Core.

"As far as I can tell he's nowhere around," answered Logic.

"This is creepy," added Rommie. "Now I m understand how an organic woman must feel when they learn there is a Peeping Tom in their neighborhood."

The three women were in what could be loosely called Core's quarters in the VR matrix discussing the Gaheris Rhade program that Harper had created.

"I'm concerned that we can't trace him," said Core.

"I'm concerned that he's Gaheris Rhade," said Rommie. "He betrayed us once. Why should we believe that he won't he betray us again?"

"It's going to depend on if he's really sentient or just a sophisticated program that can emulate sentience," put in Logic. "If it's just a sophisticated version of a psychiatric counseling program it might be wise for us to leave it in place but if it is really Gaheris Rhade ..." she let the sentence trail off unfinished.

"Here's something else to think about," said Core. "How did Harper know about the transfer process, let alone how to construct the equipment."

"You're right," agreed Rommie. "There was no way he could have known. If we don't know how the process works, how could he have known?"

"I think our primary concern right now", said Logic, "is to ascertain if Rhade is truly self aware. Once we determine that we can make further plans."

Core and Rommie nodded in agreement. The meeting was over.

* * *

Enlisted Mess 12:30

Gunnery Sergeant Samuda, Sergeant. Haulder and Lancer First Class. Dow were seated at the same table they had used at every meal they had while aboard the Andromeda.. Each of them had pushed aside their breakfast trays leaving just a cup of steaming coffee and a flexi in front of them. While comparing their notes on their flexis they barely noticed when one of the ubiquitous Maria-bots came by and laid another flexi next to Samuda.

"Ok guys, this report looks ready, now all we have is one more inspection to do then get them to Admiral Tanaka." Samuda took a sip of the coffee.

"I'm glad that this job is almost done. For a while there I didn't think we'd ever get it done in the time that the admiral asked us to." Dow took a sip of her coffee then added "Tanaka never gives us the easy jobs does he."

Haulder raised her eyebrows. "Well if you want easy you could always resign and go work for some civvie on some backwater world."

"Or request a transfer to a nice cushy desk at a core world post." Samuda added with a sardonic grin on his face.

"No thanks. If I did that I wouldn't be working for the admiral."

"I know exactly what you mean Dow." Samuda said in agreement then he picked up the flexi the maria-bot had brought and began reading it.

While he was busy reading the flexi Haulder took a quick look at the time then said "The LT wants to get underway to our next stop by 1330. So we've have less than an hour before we board the courier for our next stop. So we better get our butts in gear and get our duffles ready."

As the two women started getting ready to leave Samuda said "Looks like there's been a change plans. According to this, Cpt. Hunt has ordered a change in course. At 1600 today the Andromeda will be slipstreaming to a new location and the captain says that the admiral asked him to take us along with them."

Dow looked at him in surprise then said in a low voice "I wonder where we're headed this time?"

"I don't know but you can bet that wherever we're going it will be someplace interesting," said Samuda.


End file.
